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Bee Colonies Struggle Despite Record Production Numbers<\/h2>\n
Not everything looks bright for Panama’s buzzing workforce. Mar\u00eda Gabriela Pitano works at the National Livestock Directorate of MIDA. She said the country’s beehives still don’t produce all the honey they should. [Translated from Spanish]<\/p>\n
Each hive averaged 4.56 gallons last year. The industry considers 8 gallons per hive as optimal. That gap represents a significant loss in potential revenue for local beekeepers.<\/p>\n
Jos\u00e9 Rodr\u00edguez serves as a beekeeping technician at MIDA’s Livestock Directorate. He explained the collection process takes time. “Honey harvesting is like the sugar cane harvest or melon season. It takes between five and six months and happens in cycles,” Rodr\u00edguez said. [Translated from Spanish]<\/p>\n
Climate Change and Pests Threaten Panama Beekeeping<\/h2>\n
Bees face enormous challenges that hurt both the economy and ecological balance. Climate change creates prolonged droughts. Excessive rainfall and high temperatures directly harm bee colonies. These environmental pressures reduce what each hive can produce.<\/p>\n
Lack of technical training among some beekeepers makes things worse. Many don’t provide constant monitoring. They skip supplementary feeding. They fail to give colonies the proper management needed for maximum output.<\/p>\n
Pitano emphasized that monitoring matters for early pest detection. The varroa mite causes serious damage to hives. It creates deformation problems and lowers colony populations. Other viruses also hurt production levels.<\/p>\n
Panama hosts at least 700 bee species out of the 20,000 found worldwide. These include social insects and solitary ones. Not all produce honey but all perform vital ecological functions. The most common commercial bees are Africanized bees<\/a>. They came from Brazil and are known for aggression and high honey yields. Native species like meliponas and trigonas have no stingers. They produce less honey but their product has high medicinal and commercial value.<\/p>\n Pitano raised concerns about market pressures. Despite growing national production, Panama still consumes large amounts of imported honey. About 48 percent of honey eaten in the country comes from abroad.<\/p>\n “There is somewhat unfair competition. The honey that comes from outside often isn’t good quality honey. It’s blended honey, not 100 percent pure,” Pitano said. [Translated from Spanish] This creates unequal competition on both price and quality.<\/p>\n The price gap stings local producers. A bottle of domestic honey costs around 12 dollars. Supermarkets offer double the amount of imported product for the same price. That makes it hard for Panamanian beekeepers to compete on store shelves.<\/p>\n Rodr\u00edguez described how colonies function. Each bee has a specific job and every role matters. The queen acts as “an egg-laying machine,” he said. A single queen can lay between 2,000 and 2,500 eggs daily.<\/p>\n Worker bees handle most tasks. They find water sources. They protect the hive. They collect nectar and pollen. Drones exist mainly to mate with new queens. The colony size varies but always includes these three types.<\/p>\n Panama’s beekeeping sector grew from 332 producers in 2020 to 652 in 2025. That represents a near doubling in five years. The number of hives dropped slightly from 16,353 in 2024 to 15,529 in 2025. Yet production still increased by 2.84 percent year over year. This suggests better management and healthier colonies.<\/p>\nImported Honey Creates Unfair Competition for Local Producers<\/h2>\n
Inside the Hive: How Bee Colonies Work<\/h2>\n