The Bible calls the Land of Israel the Land of Milk and Honey. We are urban beekeepers and the honey in Israel is divine. Another contestant for being a honey country is Yemen, on the coast of the Red Sea. We’ve tasted raw honey from Yemen (read about the 8 kinds, some from the sidr tree) and next Sunday, the activities of the National Festival of Yemeni Honey and Bee Products will be launched in Al Sabeen Park in Sana’a under the slogan “Yemen the home of honey”.
Related: The Houthis sing a song for Israel and the Yemen Jews sing back
The festival, organized by the Honey Unit of the Higher Agricultural and Fisheries Committee and the Ministry of Agriculture aims to promote Yemeni honey, revive its status, market Yemeni brands of this cash crop globally, as well as enhance its role in economic growth and reach self-sufficiency with its products.
Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world, and like the Hezbollah has taken over Lebanon, Yemen is home to the Houthis, a global Islamic terror group that operates as a state within the state.
Related: How the Houthis use water as a weapon for war
Radwan Al-Rubai from the agricultural ministry said that the festival will be an annual event seeking to promote Yemeni honey of various types and high quality.
The UN is playing an active role in supporting beekeepers in Yemen. And we know from our friend in Israel that Bees for Peace, a project by beekeeper Yossi Oud, works to keep women from all religions and walks of life connected to nature and to a means for making their own money.
Al-Rubai said that Yemen bees are different from all types of bees in the world, and the honey is extracted in areas free of chemicals. Beekeepers do use toxic chemicals to control varoa mites and it would be difficult to know whether or not if these products are being used by individual beekeepers.
The new soon-to-be annual honey festival, to last 6 days, feature Yemen’s honey associations, producers and marketers of honey from a number of governorates. The week will include scientific sessions and seminars on honey productivity managed by experts and researchers in this field. Yemen is also home to unusual socotra tree or dragon tree that bleeds. We wonder what honey from this flowering tree might taste like.
Yemen is one of the world’s poorest and driest countries. Its aquifers are expected to run dry by 2030.
