Central Asia Honeys

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Cenasco invites you to visit the world of Central Asian Honeys...
Uzbekistan - Kirghiztan - Tadjikistan - Kazakhstan

Central Asian beekeeping

Central Asian natural conditions are extremely diversified. It is composed of plains, deserts and high mountains (Tian Chan, Pamir), which continue up to the Himalayan chain itself.

You will find there huge unpolluted spaces, with lots of nectar plants, conditions which are ideal for beekeeping. The major honey producers of the area are Kirghizia, Uzbekistan, Tadjikistan and the south of Kazakhstan.

During the Soviet times, beekeeping was very well developed, and organized within a framework of State structures. However, private beekeepers were permitted to have their own honey production and to sell it for their own profit, which was highly appreciated at that time.

Because of it, there is a long tradition of beekeeping in Central Asia, and the most qualified local beekeepers are even capable of really complex operations like queen breeding etc. This story led to real beekeepers dynasties, like for instance this family shown below, from the Fergana valley, which operates a total of 4,000 hives.

Lots of beekeepers are still private individuals, producing honey with a few hives and for their own family needs. Besides, professional beekeepers operate in general from 150 to 300 hives. They practice transhumant beekeeping, moving trailers where hives are fixed on a permanent basis.

The most widespread bee stock in Central Asia is Apis mellifica carnica, of Carpathian ecotype. It is very well adapted to the local environmental conditions, including to the extremely heavy temperature fluctuations.

Beekeeping trailers are of two types, either the open type or closed wagons.

Closed wagons offer particularly good working conditions: beekeepers perform their operations from the inside of the wagon, in general with an integrated extractor. Beekeepers themselves live also inside one of the wagons.

Beekeeping season depends on local climatic conditions: southern areas, close to the Afghan border may start in March, earlier than others, which usually start in April.

In spring, beekeepers start moving to one or sometimes to a few wild areas. If we consider for instance the central Uzbekistan area (Samarkand, Jizzak), beekeepers start moving to the Kizilkum desert and then to the mountains located in the north of Samarkand. The Kirghiz and the Uzbeks of the Fergana valley (Fergana, Andijan, Osh) already leave for the Kirghiz mountains as early as April/May. Then, in July, everybody comes back to the valley because this is the start of the cotton season which will last till the end of September.

Spring migrations / Summer migrations

This approach means that for half of the season, beekeepers operate far from any towns, industries or industrial crops. Therefore, with a few minor changes in the production process, this honey will be ready for a qualification as organic honey.

The major problem faced by Central Asian beekeepers today is the marketing of their products. At the time of the Soviet Union, this question was handled by the State, notwithstanding private family sales. Today nobody took its place, export sales are only performed through Cenasco and a few Turkish or Russian smugglers exporting honey illegally. Beekeepers have only the solution of selling their honey on a very small scale on the local markets and if possible, try to do barter with their own suppliers.

When Cenasco appeared as a firm buyer on the markets, after an initial apprehension period, beekeepers started to modify their behaviors because, for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, they were foreseeing possibilities for regular sales in the long run. In particular, they started to be much more careful in using drugs in their hives. However, their low level of production and the lack of financial means, for instance to buy highly productive queens, has still a very negative impact on their productivity and of course on their costs.

Central Asian honeys

We consider that it is today impossible to give serious production figures for the area. Extremely unrealistic figures are shown from times to times, without any possibility of crosschecking. However, we can say that in each of these countries (Uzbekistan, Kirghizia, Tadjikistan and the south of Kazakhstan) there is a confirmed output of a few thousand tons of honey. Today the only country which obtained a European agreement for honey imports into the EU is Kirghizia. Uzbekistan is also working on this issue.

Cotton
Scientific names: Gossipium arboreum, Gossipium herbaceum
This honey represents about 50 % of the total regional output.
It is worth mentionning that cotton crops, which had been drowned under pesticides at the Soviet times, became today totally clean. This does not come from ideological reasons but simply because they are too expensive. They have been replaced by a very inexpensive way of fighting against cotton parasites: in every village they breed small butterflies which are the natural predators of cotton worms. Therefore there are no longer any contamination of the cotton honey by chemicals.
Cotton honey is a creamy honey of light amber colour (about 17 to 35 mm) with a mild, pleasant, flowery taste, without excessive acidity.

The remaining 50 % of the total output are represented by a few uniflor quite specific honeys and polyflor wild flowers honey, which comes mostly from the Kirghizian mountains, like this one, light and creamy.
Yantak
Scientific names: Alhagi canescens (Regel) Keller & Shap., Alhagi kirghisorum Schrenk (camel’s thorn), Alhagi persarum Boiss. & Buhse, Alhagi pseudalhagi Desv.
Galegeae family
Pungent durable bush. It can be found in the Kizylkum desert, among other places.
This plant gives a light amber, quite mild, quite pleasant, slightly acidulous, flowerish honey.
Akuraï
Scientific names: Psoralea drupacea, Cullen drupaceum (Bunge) Stirton
Other species: Cullen americanum, Cullen cinerea, Cullen corylifolium, Cullen drupaceum, Cullen glandulosa, Cullen graveolens, Cullen obtusifolium, Cullen patens, Cullen tenax, Cullen tomentosum
Fabacea family
Durable herb, used in the treatment of the vitiligo.
Snow-white, quite mild, quite pleasant, flowerish honey (in general lower than 10 mm), no bitter taste.
Vasiliok
Scientific names: Centaurea squarrosa, Centaurea depressa, Centaurea ruthenica
Asteraceae family
Durable herb
This plant gives an average amber, slightly spicy and quite typical honey.
It is worth mentionning that in general the whole region is very dry, especially the plains and the deserts. This is reflected in the low humidity rate of Central Asian honeys (only 16 to 17 %!).

All this seems to draw an ideal picture of the local beekeeping situation. However, this has to be precised: the local exogenous conditions of beekeeping are excellent, but sometimes local practices may create some problems (e.g. the use of antibiotics for prophylactic purposes). Analysis may show an inacceptable level of prohibited substances. Therefore, we recommand a very careful approach. The use of sugar remains however at a quite acceptable stage (5 kg to feed a hive for a whole year). We did not meet any case of adulteration.

Other bee products

Byproducts like propolis and pollen can also be found. These products are only marketed locally for the time beeing.

Cenasco, your future partner in Central Asia?

A brief historical presentation:

Cenasco SA is a Swiss, Geneva registered company, established 1993 with the purpose of developping trading activities in Central Asia.

Till 2001, Cenasco has been very active as a representative of European companies looking for large State projects (about US$ 180 million of achieved projects).

This activity has been reduced because of a serious drop in State project budgets. Today Cenasco is very much involved in the fashion area (NafNaf and Jean Daniel shops, Garment manufacturing workshop), in the cosmetics area (Yves Rocher shop) and in pharmaceuticals imports.

Cenasco has a staff of about 40, most of them working in a subsidiary: Cenasco Trading (bank references: Crédit Agricole of Geneva).
Cenasco honey department

We are a relatively inexperienced company in the honey business: Cenasco has been working in this field since 2003 only, and with quite unsignificant volumes of 100-150 tons / year. However, our organization is fit to operate on much larger volumes and we do not have any serious competitor in the major beekeeping countries of the area (Uzbekistan, Kirghizia, Tadjikistan).

We collect directly our honey from the beekeepers, working by means of regional collecting centers. We have our own regional representatives, who are in permanent contact with the beekeepers. We operate from Tashkent and we have three regional bases: Samarkand and Fergana/Namangan in Uzbekistan, and Osh in Kirghizia. We may open a fourth one in the northern Tadjikistan where there is a huge honey potential and where we just started to buy honey.

In addition, we opened a laboratory in Tashkent, specially dedicated to honey analysis, and capable to perform all physical and chemical usual tests, plus some antibiotics researches (chloramphenicol, nitrofurans) using the Elisa approach. To our knowledge, it is the only laboratory of its kind in Central Asia.

All test results are included into a data base, with details of any beekeeper, and with all additional information collected during our meetings with them. This gives us the advantage of cumulating experience and of getting a much better knowledge of the beekeeping environment in Central Asia. During the first two years, we had to eliminate about 50 % of the samples collected, because of identified contamination, an extremely significant figure. Our data base gave us the opportunity of drawing a contamination map in Central Asia, which has to our knowledge no equivalent.

In our approach we are trying to develop a close cooperation with the beekeepers, individually or through their associations, in order to help them in the field of training and of sanitary practices. A project of queen breeding center is also under investigation.

Collecting and shipping honey:

Samples are collected in the beekeeper’s premices, the original containers beeing numbered.

Composite samples are then mixed, in order to have an average quantity of 4 tons (from 2.5 to 5 tons), for one or several beekeepers. Then analysis are performed in parallel in our laboratory and in Europe (Applica in Germany or Cetam in France).

After eliminating the contaminated samples, the selected honey is packed into drums (reconditionned 200 L drums, repainted with food-grade paint, with or without polyethylen bags upon clients’ requirements).

Drums are marqued with a number including the following information:

    Contract number
    Drum number
    Honey sort
    Colour
    Beekeeper’s code with its region
    Dates

This procedure enables us to guarantee a full tracability.

Drums are then shipped to the clients, in general by train, which is the cheapest way from Central Asia.
As an option, it is then possible to stop for an intermediate step in Poland in a partner’s plant, in order to standardize, purify and homogenize the honey. This concerns of course only the honeys to be shipped to Europe or to the US East Coast.

	CENASCO TRADING Usman Usupova str 1 700128 Tachkent Uzbekistan
	+998 71 - 135 26 37 / 135 64 72 / 135 87 92
	+998 71 - 135 64 72
	Sales: Thierry Sompairac Th.sompairac@wanadoo.fr

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