Slovenia wants to extend co-op in beekeeping, honey cultivation

Slovenia wants to extend cooperation in the areas of climate change, trade, agricultural technology and knowledge sharing, especially beekeeping and honey cultivation.
During a recent visit to Bangladesh, a 13-member Slovenian delegation has also shown interest to boost trade and cooperation between the two countries.
"Both the countries have agreed to sign an agreement for sharing knowledge and technology in beekeeping and honey cultivation to create more employment opportunities in rural areas of Bangladesh," Tanja Strniša, state secretary of the agriculture, forestry and food ministry of Slovenia, said in an interview with the FE recently.
"We will continue to explore new avenues of cooperation in future," she added.
The state secretary of Slovenia, a nation of beekeepers, thinks Bangladesh could be one of the best honey-producing countries because of its favourable weather conditions and pollination.
The delegation led by Tanja Strniša visited Bangladesh from November 27-28 and met government high officials.
This was the first visit of any Slovenian leader to Bangladesh since independence of that country in 1991.
Earlier, Bangladesh's State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam visited Slovenia in June this year.
During her visit, Strniša met Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam and Brac Chairperson Fazle Hasan Abed to discuss the prospects of cooperation.
The state secretary said there has a lot of potentials of cooperation in trade. The value of bilateral trade was only 32 million euros in 2015.
"Of the amount, Bangladesh exported goods mainly garments worth 28 million euros to Slovenia. The rest are Slovenian exports to Bangladesh," she told the FE, citing that there are still so many areas the country may explore.
She also invited Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed to visit Slovenia.
"Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed promised to visit Slovenia within next six months. A number of deals may be signed during the visit," she said.
Slovenia has a century-old heritage of beekeeping. The country has five beekeepers in every one thousand of its inhabitants.
The state secretary met beekeepers' association leaders to learn about the indigenous beekeeping and honey production of Bangladesh.
She said Bangladesh wants to raise its number of beekeepers and provide them with proper training in beekeeping and honey production.
Commercial beekeeping in Bangladesh is still in a nascent stage. Honey is produced partly through beekeeping by farmers in winter and partly from wild bees.
She said Slovenia produces good quality honey and the country is sort of pioneer in beekeeping.
"We treat bees and honey as a product. We have a lot of knowledge on beekeeping and this is part of our tradition and culture," said Strniša.
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