Cuba — land of sugar cane and honey

Cuba, famed for its sugar cane production is stepping up it honey production and has some smart things to increase production which has found a lucrative European market:

Dr Adolfo Rodríguez Piñeiro, director of the National Center for Beekeeping Research, stated that a digitalized geographical information system has been developed to pinpoint where to locate the hives with more precision. This digitalized map of Cuban vegetation will also allow then to know which zones have the greatest amount of space to install more hives.

Cuba has almost 150,000 operational hives and in 2003 produced 7,200 tons of honey. Prior to this season's hurricanes, they hoped to produce a record 10,000 tons this year. Specific honeys like campanula and mangrove are highly prized and European institutions have certified the island to sell 1,500 tons of organic honey to Europe.

On a visit to Cuba a few years ago, I could only find honey on sale in the dollar shops. Perhaps it's too precious for internal consumption.