The beekeepers warn. High mortality of bees, alarming

The beekeepers have warned of an alarmingly high rate of the mortality of bees in Bulgaria since the beginning of spring, at a press conference organized by the BTA on Tuesday.

Mihail Mihailov, the president of the Bulgarian beekeepers’ Union and the United Union of Beekeepers in Bulgaria said that the first information on the large proportion of bee colonies that have died come from northern and northeast of Bulgaria, where mortality has reached 90%. Mihailov added that there is a tendency towards an even greater decline in the number of bee colonies. Regarding the main factors of the high mortality of the bees in 2025 he listed the lower immunity of the bees, the wrong policy of the Ministry of Agriculture and Foods regarding the support of the beekeepers who have up to 20 hives, the chaos from the Bulgarian Agency for Food Safety on the report and control of the preventive examination Discernment of some queens brought from abroad and deterioration of the bee genetic background.

To improve the situation in this sector, the industry proposes a number of measures. These include the prohibition of irregular imports of plant protection products used by farmers in the treatment of entomophilic crops (insect pollinated plants), as well as the prohibition of irregular imports of veterinary drugs to combat larvae and bees. The beekeepers want to resume the preventive examinations carried out by the veterinary services. The industry also announced that within an audience at the Ministry of Agriculture you will propose the establishment of a beekeeping directorate to administer and be directly responsible for the status of this sector.

The representatives of the bee industry expressed their concern about the future of bees and claimed that this problem raises serious risks not only for the sector but also for biodiversity and pollination of harvests. They said it was a national problem and requested an urgent and coordinated response.

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