Successful presentation of Slovakia at the Apimondia world beekeeping congress
by Jozef Polák
The 46th Apimondia International Beekeeping Congress was held in Montreal, Canada from 8 to 12 September. Over all there were around 5.500 participants from 134 countries. The participants could hear more than 320 lectures and read more than 360 scientific posters. In parallel with lectures running simultaneously in several rooms, several symposia, workshops and discussion clubs were included as well into scientific part of the Congress.
The Congress also includes the General Assembly of member beekeeping associations and organizations of this Federation, beekeeping fair, accompanying events and competition of beekeeping exhibits.
Apimondia Executive Council consisting of president, vice-president, secretary-general, 7 presidents of Scientific commissions and 5 presidents of Regional commissions has been partially replaced by new persons. After the late chairman Philip McCabe was elected Jeff Pettis from USA, new leaders has also Scientific commissions on bee biology and health, as well as a Regional commissions for the American and European continents. European beekeepers will be represented by assoc. prof. Robert Chlebo from the Faculty of Agrobiology and Food Resources (FAFR) of the Slovak University of Agriculture (SUA) in Nitra. In the elections won over the candidate from Italy, so the Slovak representative will be for the first time incorporated into work of this global federation of associations and organizations operating in the beekeeping sector.
Within Apimondia World Beekeeping Awards (WBA) competition, Slovak beekeepers received a total of 20 medals and achieved first place in the ratings of countries. Russian beekeepers finished second with 13 awards, third US with 7 medals. Most of the medals for Slovakia - 9 in total - were gold, 4 silver and 7 bronze.
Slovak beekeepers dominated mainly in the categories intended for mead and honey beers, where they received a total of 11 medals. In the category of mead, Vcelco company also won the winner's cup for the world best mead. The winner's cup is awarded for the best honey and mead competition among all categories rated at the WBA. It was awarded for the fourth time in the history of WBA, and for the third time it is in the hands of Slovak representatives.
Other medals were obtained by representatives of Slovakia in the categories of wax candles (4 in total), light honeys, set of several types of honey, set of several bee products, combinations of honey with other foods, and beekeeping books.
Co-author of gold-winning book (among another 27 beautiful titles) about bee colonies management without chemicals of the Slovak-Austrian-Czech project consortium Blesabee, is an employee of FAFR SUA R. Chlebo.
Prior to the Apimondia Congress, R. Chlebo attended the 15th Conference of the Scientific Apidology Consortium COLOSS, where the directions and joint programmes of beekeeping research for the near future were discussed.
The next Apimondia Congress will take place in Ufa, Russia in two years, and Chile has been elected as the congress venue in 2023, defeating the Ethiopian counter-candidates.
