Value Chains research report Tajikistan final - Microfinance Centre

Inputs
An important factor for productive beekeeping is the delivery of high quality inputs
and easy access to them for beekeepers. To obtain good honey, ideal conditions need to be
created for the bee families.
Bee queens. Bee queens are imported from Transcarpathian region (Western
Ukraine) or Russia (Moscow or the Krasnodar Territory). Existing channels use Uzbek
intermediary companies, though it is also possible to import directly. The demand for
Carpathian breed of bees is high. Russian beekeepers work mostly with the Carpathian
breed, and so do the Tajik beekeepers. A survey conducted among the beekeepers has
shown that they pay up to 30 dollars for each bee queen brought from Uzbekistan. Tagged
bee queens are imported from Russia to Tashkent, then to Begavat and finally to Spitamen.
When importing the bee queens, it is necessary to check their adaptation to the local
climate. Considering the imports are performed by private entrepreneurs, there are no
statistics available for this sector. Now some beekeepers are ready to buy a bee family for
200 Somoni. It is important for beekeepers to update the bees’ genes regularly.
However, this is quite expensive, so the beekeepers agree to purchase the first
generation – a reproduction from the imported purebred bees.
Leading beekeepers can work with other breeds of bees; everything depends on
which breed is demanded in the market and which breeds the beekeepers are ready to buy.
The leading beekeepers buy bee queens once every two years, as breeding stock.
Beekeepers in Khujand have good breeding skills and they are ready to breed and sell the
bees.
Frame bee houses. Bee houses are produced of shaped timber (mostly silver fir)
and consist of the bottom, walls, honey chamber, under-cover, cover, frames and
diaphragms. There are several types of bee houses: long hives and multiple-storey hives.
They are also differentiated by the number of frames, which varies from 10 to 24 pieces. In
Tajikistan, the most common type is 12-16 and 20-24-frame long hives.
Bee colonies. A proper bee colony consists from a queen, drones and working bees.
The bee packs are divided into four-frame and six-frame ones. Two frames for sealed brood
(1.2 kg of bees, one laying queen no more than two years old) and two honey and beebread
frames, 1.5 kg for each frame. The six-frame bee packs contain four frames with
sealed brood and two with honey and bee-bread, for a total of 1.6 kg of bees.
Accessories are supplied from Uzbekistan, Russia and Ukraine, where there is a
wide choice, but the problem is these accessories are not always available and affordable
for everyone. Each town that has a large number of beekeepers also has some suppliers of
medical supplies and instruments for beekeeping. Most of the accessories used today are
from old supplies, badly in need of upgrade, and this is becoming a problem for all
beekeepers in Tajikistan.
Honey centrifuges. There is a high demand for honey presses suitable for extracting
honey using centrifugal force.
Accessories and boxes are purchased from local craftsmen. The demand for boxes
is extremely high. The most common ones are 12-frame boxes for one family of bees.
110