“Support for Sustainable Beekeeping Practices and Inclusion of Beekeepers in the Muğla Region” Project, funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and implemented by ANKON Consulting, aims to support Balparmak’s efforts in developing new and innovative products through improving links with beekeepers who supply honey to the company. This will be achieved by enabling access to skills and knowledge, as well as opportunities for employment, in remote areas of the Mugla region, with a focus on women and youth. The Project will provide different training opportunities based
on beekeepers needs, aiming to make the best use of the existing potential and ensuring sustainability
of beekeeping in Turkey.

The Balparmak Beekeeping Academy began its training sessions at the Muğla-Ula campus on December 3th. Balparmak founded the academy for the purpose of recruiting women and youth to the industry in order to promote the sustainability of the beekeeping profession, and with the intent to support increased production of honey and value-added bee products, such as royal jelly, pollen, and propolis. Faculty member Dr. Ali Ihsan Öztürk and other experts in the field from Ula Vocational School’s Apiculture Department at Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, are teaching the courses, which will continue until April. So far, 40 beekeeper candidates have participated in the Beekeeping Academy’s winter semester classroom sessions, which each last three weeks. Balparmak launched the academy with support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). 

Hands-on classroom training sessions offered in the classroom and at the model apiary will be held in three-week semesters from April until November 2019. During the same period, the Balparmak mobile education vehicle will make visits to villages and give workshops demonstrating the production of honey and value-added bee products first-hand, while also updating beekeepers on new information. Basic beekeeping information will be available at all times through distance learning sessions offered on the Balparmak Beekeeping Academy website.

Everyone who participates in, and successfully completes, the distance education courses or the mobile training sessions will receive a Bal-Der (Platform for Healthy Living Through Bee Products Platform) certificate of participation. Balparmak will support candidates who have successfully completed the hands-on classroom trainings and the distance education course as they take their first steps into apiculture, rewarding them with two hives stocked with bees.