From Caribbean News Now

ROSEAU, Dominica – Dominica was the next stop for the government of Argentina and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA) in their efforts to promote apiculture in the Caribbean. 

Argentine Ambassador Gustavo Martinez Pandiani and IICA Representative Kent Coipel joined Dominican Permanent Secretaries of Foreign Affairs, Sylvaine Burton, and Agriculture, Reginald Thomas while launching this innovative triangular cooperation project aimed at assisting local beekeepers and other stakeholders of the honey production sector. 

The intense working agenda of “ApiCaribe”, a joint programme organized by Argentina/IICA/Dominica, included site visits to numerous apiaries in the west, centre and east the island, as well as a training workshop by Argentine experts Liliana Gallez and Elian Tourn, who travelled to Roseau to help developing the apiculture industry. 

On the relevance of the project, ambassador Pandiani said “ApiCaribe is of paramount importance for Dominica because of its vast potential for Apiculture and its rich diversity in flora and fauna. This cooperation reinforces the honey production capabilities all over the Caribbean while creating new job opportunities for the youth”.

Meanwhile, Kent Coipel stated, “We have implemented several important apiculture projects in the region based on the installation of the Argentine ´Perone Hive´, and decided to partner up with Argentina to maximize the great potential of the honey industry in terms of socio-economic benefits, particularly for rural communities”. 

The purpose of the training is to contribute to the development of a vigorous apicultural sector in the country and promote scientific beekeeping to enhance the productivity of crops through pollination while increasing the income and welfare of farmers and the wider society. Together with that, ApiCaribe is aimed at building marketing capacities among local beekeepers for the production and commercialization of local honey products and by-products, both for the domestic and foreign markets.  

While referring to the benefits of the project for Dominica, Thomas said, “The value of honeybees extends beyond their critical role in the agro-ecosystem as pollinators. With this technical assistance, our youngsters could develop small businesses through the bottling and sale of honey or making soaps, wax and other sub-products”.

To the well-known expertise of IICA Argentina, the third-largest exporter of natural honey in the world brings to the Caribbean its history as a honey production world leader.

For more on this story go to: https://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/2019/07/31/argentina-and-iica-bring-apicaribe-to-dominica/