Fancy for Coorg Honey? Here’s what beekeepers from Karnataka hill station are doing to revive their fortunes

Coorg Honey requires state government support to get back heyday! Beekeepers of “Coorg Standard Hive” in the south Karnataka-Coorg (Kodagu) district are seeking the state government’s assistance for sustainable practice and promoting the brand “Coorg Honey”. Beekeepers have cited the Centre for Science and Environment’s (CSE) investigation report which disclosed that prominent brands in the country were selling honey laced with modified sugar syrup, according to an Indian Express report.

Beekeepers and producers of “Coorg Honey” now said they were looking forward to the state government to take their brand across India and in the international arena to revive its glory days when the Karnataka hill district was considered as India’s top honey producer, the IE report.

Coorg honey has a rich history as Sri Shambhavananda Swamiji, after becoming the first president of Sri Ramakrishna Saradashrama in Coorg in 1928, initiated a bee-keeping project in the district. The practice helped boost the local economy. In 1936, Swamiji then established the “Coorg Honey and Wax Producers Co-operative Society Ltd” which, in time, became the first honey producers’ co-operative in India.

But fortunes have turned in the past few years, the practice of bee-keeping and honey collection in the south Karnataka-Coorg (Kodagu) district has declined. Nowadays the Coorg Honey and Wax Producers Co-operative Society Ltd has been forced to procure honey from North Indian states an to keep their brand alive.

Senior assistant director, Horticulture (Apiculture), Dr. Hemalatha said that there are three different schemes at central, state, and district levels to help farmers who are interested in apiculture. Other officials in the horticulture department have claimed that several measures have been announced in recent years to increase the production of honey and provide subsidy to farmers interested in Apiculture, the IE report says.