Beekeeping sweetens prospects for villagers in East China

In the early morning, Liu Huangping, 50, carefully places beehives around his house, preparing to welcome his tiny guests and help them build nests.

"It's about time for the honeybees to swarm in, and we will gather honey in August," said Liu, a villager in Gangbei village in Jing'an county, East China's Jiangxi province, who has been keeping bees for about 20 years.

Gangbei village, neighboring the Jiangxi Jiulingshan National Nature Reserve, has abundant natural resources, boasting a forest coverage rate of over 93 percent.

"The sound ecosystem is perfect for beekeeping," said Liu, adding that the wild honey produced here is of high quality, as beekeepers only gather honey once a year.

Roughly 50 households in Liu's village engage in apiculture.

"There used to be fewer than five households keeping bees, but the sizable and stable income from beekeeping has drawn more villagers into this business," he said.

In 2015, a cooperative was set up to guide villagers on apiculture and help them sell honey. "We teach them modern beekeeping techniques to increase honey production and provide them with regular sales channels. villagers have almost no trouble selling it," said Wu Zhulin, Party branch secretary of Gangbei village.

According to Wu, there were over 1,200 beehives in the village at the end of 2022, with an annual yield of up to 6,750 kg of wild honey worth more than 600,000 yuan (about 87,165 U.S. dollars).

The sweet business of apiculture has brought prosperity to villagers. In 2017, the Gangbei village was lifted out of poverty.

In 2021, Liu was invited to join a local company specializing in cultural tourism projects. He was put in charge of promoting local agricultural products in combination with tourism.

"I know our honey products better than anyone, and tourists are the main potential buyers," said Liu, emphasizing the importance of branding and packaging. His team completed shooting a promotional video for the locally made honey last year to attract more tourists.

A State Council executive meeting held in March urged efforts to advance rural revitalization across the board, foster rural industries with local characteristics, and create more channels to increase rural incomes.

To further broaden the marketability of wild honey produced in this remote village, the government of Jing'an county invited e-commerce companies to Gangbei to promote local honey products via livestreaming.

"Now, our honey products are available on many e-commerce platforms," said Qi Weixing, deputy director of the county's agriculture and rural affairs bureau. "We also invited experts to guide villagers on producing agricultural products and encourage them to get widely involved in industries with our local characteristics."