On the eve of the 47th Congress of the International Federation of Beekeeping Associations “Apimondia”, the traditional beekeeping industry in Bashkortostan was under threat due to an ill-conceived and ambitious project.
According to the correspondent MorningNewsin the Ishimbai district of Bashkiria, a people’s gathering of citizens protesting against the arrival of a French company in the republic, which will be engaged in beekeeping, was held.
People believe that the interference of foreigners can have a detrimental effect on the honey industry, traditional for Bashkiria. This publication reported Mkset.ru.
So far, there has been no official response to this message. Of course, one can always say that the leadership of the republic was busy with no less important matters – the appointment of a new mayor of Ufa, etc. However, the villagers and beekeepers have a different impression – they believe that the local authorities simply do not seek to hear their people, who may be left without a livelihood. Are they right?
They took to the streets
Villagers from the Ishimbay region recorded their video message, which is available for viewing on YouTube.
By the way, the fact that the recording participants speak Bashkir immediately dismisses possible claims that they were hired by one of the possible competitors of French investors, because an appeal in Russian would definitely have collected much more views.
In particular, the villagers protested against leasing the lands of several settlements for the placement of apiaries of the French company. According to residents, the territory of the Ishimbaysky natural zoological reserve, an object of special nature protection, can be leased. According to the radio station’s website “Echo of Moscow in Ufa”an auction has already been scheduled for March 5 to lease several land plots near the villages of Sargaevo, Ibraevo and Isyakaevo.
At the meeting, information was also heard that the territory of the Ishimbaysky reserve had attracted the attention of the French company Bee Happy. The authors of the site of the radio station “Echo of Moscow in Ufa” believe that the apiaries will be placed by French investors Patrick Hoffman and Antoine Mendelovichi, who represent the Otrada Group of Companies in Russia. It is important to note that the Otrada Group has not previously been engaged in beekeeping, but specialized, for example, in pig breeding. According to Rusprofile, the company was founded by an individual Artem Shashlov (he also manages the Lipetsk company Euro Slats, created by Messrs. Hoffmann and Mendelovichi, which manufactures concrete products for use in construction and also formally has little to do with beekeeping).
From pig breeding to beekeeping at hand, there would be a desire
Residents of the Ishimbay region also stated that they did not agree with them on the location of the apiaries of the French company. “I was surprised that they want to give our lands to the French … My grandfathers, great-grandfathers lived here, and why will I now have some kind of restriction? I don’t agree with this. And all my villagers are against anything happening here. We ourselves will cultivate our lands, we ourselves will enjoy all the benefits. Why don’t they ask us this, but want to solve it somewhere? We are against this, ”a local resident, a participant in the recording of the video message, is indignant.
bees in french
It is difficult to disagree with the residents of Bashkortostan, who say that local authorities would be better off facilitating the organization of centralized purchases of honey from local producers, its certification and export of honey, instead of allowing foreign companies to operate in the region.
According to the villagers, if the situation develops according to the scenario of the authorities, then after the apiaries of the French company appear in the region, the collection of honey by local producers will drop sharply. Moreover, there is a possibility that local bee populations may suffer as a result of French imports of bees from other regions. Such a development of events is quite likely, given that the French plan to create a production base of 30,000 bee colonies and produce up to 7,000 tons of honey per year.
However, judging by the mood of the citizens, they are not going to put up with foreign expansion. “In our own land, we are the masters ourselves!” This is how the residents ended their video message in the Bashkir language.
Such an attitude of local authorities towards those who do not want to see some “French investors” on their land is quite understandable, given that the government of this region is, in fact, lobbying for the interests of France in Bashkortostan. For example, a year ago the press service government of Bashkiria reported that the project of Patrick Hoffman and Antoine Mendelovichi was presented at Investchas with the participation of the head of the region, Radiy Khabirov.
Photo: glavarb.ru
Radiy Khabirov
A year before that, on May 19, 2020, the same Bee Happy LLC was registered in Ufa. The sole owner of this company is Patrick Hoffman. Radiy Khabirov approved the inclusion of the French project in the priority list. Investors should even be reimbursed for part of the cost of purchasing equipment and provide tax incentives. Local producers can probably only dream of such preferences. At a meeting with Radiy Khabirov, Patrick Hoffman said that he plans to work on the conservation and development of the genetics of the Bashkir population of the Central Russian bee and promote the brand of Bashkir honey. At the same time, he specified that the project in Bashkiria should be his first experience in beekeeping.
What’s wrong?
The beekeepers of Bashkiria have not been doing so well in recent years. For two summers in a row, bees in many apiaries died, poisoned as a result of chemical pollination, which was carried out by neighboring farmers who did not bother to warn the beekeepers about this. So, last summer, according to experts, 1990 bee colonies were partially affected in Bashkiria, 23 died.
Beekeeping is a costly business, and such losses, of course, have become a great tragedy for beekeepers. Moreover, many of them are hereditary beekeepers, for them bees have become a matter of life and a help to their ancestors. In addition, Bashkiria is perhaps the only region of Russia where they are engaged in wild beekeeping, extracting honey from wild bees.
Why shouldn’t the state really support Bashkir beekeepers, including by organizing a centralized purchase of honey from them and not debugging a certification system that would allow Bashkir honey to be exported?.. Moreover, a very prestigious forum is to be held in Bashkiria very soon – The 47th Congress of the International Federation of Beekeeping Associations “Apimondia”, which should bring together beekeepers from all over the world.
Photo: pravitelstvorb.ru
The decision to hold Apimondia in Bashkiria a few years ago was received with great joy
The beekeepers of Bashkiria were looking forward to this event, they talked a lot about what needs to be changed or improved in their business. There were many discussions in the media of Bashkiria with the participation of experts – for example, hereditary beekeeper Maarat Fazylov expressed his opinion in the publication Mkset.ru.
But in the end, instead of understanding and support from the authorities, the residents of Bashkiria were shocked when they saw on the recruiting site hh.ru a job advertisement for “apiary managers” published on behalf of the Otrada group of companies, which was looking for beekeepers and apiary managers for the sister company “Bee Happy”. Such a specialist was offered a salary of 15 thousand rubles in Ufa and Sterlitamak and up to 35 thousand rubles in the Ishimbay region. For this money, the employee will have to work at several apiaries, as follows from the text of the announcement, “using European standards and modern technologies”, as well as train new employees. The employer promises to work in the “National Park of the Ishimbai region”, with a team of consultants from Belarus and other beekeepers.
If we recall again that beekeeping is a craft that people have been learning for years, from childhood, adopting the secrets from their fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, then, perhaps, one can already begin to worry about the future of Bashkir beekeeping, an alternative to which they are preparing in this way.
Photo: https://ufa.hh.ru
This announcement made an indelible impression on the inhabitants of Bashkiria.
Apparently, for greater importance, the recruiting site also published the news that Bee Happy is a fully integrated French company engaged in beekeeping, processing and packaging of honey, based only in the protected natural parks of Bashkiria. It also followed from the agitation that “Be Happy” set an ambitious goal – to create the largest honey production in Russia with 30,000 productive hives, using a high-quality genetic base developed in-house and to export honey of the highest quality. Well, as if by chance, it was specified that the company was created in 2020.
The reaction of the inhabitants of the republic was very ambiguous. An active discussion unfolded on Facebook.ru.
“The hardest job. Responsible. For 500 rubles. per day, that is, for 8 euros per day, let them bring the French. Why did our beekeepers not please the powers that be? – Nafisa Akchurina, Executive Director of the Regional Public Organization Cultural and Educational “Berlek”, expressed indignation.
“It’s like they are recruiting Papuans. Shiny glass balls came to be exchanged for gold Bashkir honey. These “leaders” of ours are the same balls, only more. Well, they are allowed to live next to them – several more chalets of Bashkir origin will appear in France, ”lawyer Timur Urazmetov supported the topic.
The beekeeper and journalist Ilshat Imangulov recalled that the Bashkir Experimental Beekeeping Station had already ceased to exist in Bashkiria since 2009, and the Center for Apitherapy and Beekeeping, in his opinion, is today a miserable semblance of a structure that promotes the development of the industry.
“Cherche la femme”?
There must be some explanation for such tempting preferences for French investors who have proposed an ambiguous project. And the most logical of them is this – someone asked for the French, whom the leadership of the region could not refuse.
To understand what is happening, it should be remembered that the wife of the head of Bashkortostan, Radiy Khabirov, is Karine Avetisyan (Khabirova). It would seem, but so what? And the fact that Karine Vladimirovna may well turn out to be the very person to whom Radiy Khabirov could not refuse the request.
It is no secret that one of the largest and most influential diasporas of immigrants from Armenia lives in France. According to the website of the Office of the Chief Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs Republic of Armenia, “Armenians have settled in France since the early Middle Ages.” The community has grown exponentially since 1915, and currently numbers about 650,000 people, and this does not include migrant workers and illegal immigrants. This is a very large figure, given that the population of Armenia itself at the moment is about 3 million people.
Photo: twitter.com/UfaTime
Karine Avetisyan (Khabirova)
Accordingly, the diaspora of immigrants from Armenia has a great influence on the activities of the French state. And it is France that is the state where the rights of immigrants from Armenia are defended, perhaps, most zealously. In France, they even tried to pass a law punishing the denial of such a historical phenomenon as the Armenian genocide.
In this regard, it is not surprising that Radiy Khabirov, obviously, together with his wife Karine, went to meet the French, despite the active protests of fellow beekeepers from Bashkortostan. One can only guess what the Khabirov-Avetisyan couple will do after the Bashkir beekeepers are left without a job and a piece of bread and will simply be forced to declare it loudly.
Let us clarify that this is still more of a conspiracy theory, which is not supported by facts. It’s most likely just a fantasy.
… But in reality, the inhabitants of Bashkiria are already taking to the streets to call on the authorities to refrain from implementing a rash project. But will they hear?
