Bee colonies continue to mass collapse in threat to keepers' livelihood

It’s June 2021, and most Moroccans are getting ready for their first post-lockdown summer, a most awaited moment. But for the beekeepers in the Beni Mellal region, nothing is further from the truth. Tragedy had just struck.

Out of nowhere, entire bee colonies started to collapse, disappearing into thin air as if they never existed in the first place. 

“At first, we thought it was hunger,” said Zakaria El Khattabi, a beekeeper from the Casablanca region. The phenomenon was not uncommon, nor was it unnatural; bee colonies could definitely collapse if they don’t have enough food to sustain them.

But the food wasn’t the problem. Zakaria had started noticing issues back in April 2021: an abundance of food but no production of honey and bees acting strangely. But it wasn’t until June that hives started emptying and the bees disappearing.

For El Khattabi, like many other beekeepers around Morocco, these weren’t just bees but a primary income they could do nothing to save without adequate information to deal with it.

“I used to have 150 beehives before they started collapsing. I now have ten that aren’t fully functional,” added Zakaria. 

For reference, one beehive could potentially make a profit of 1000 MAD per year if the season is good. Moreover, if conditions are favorable, its maintenance cost is close to null. “It has always been a volatile sector, and profits can vary yearly,” pointed out Zakaria. Thankfully, beekeeping is not the only sector in which Zakaria is active, which means he can diversify his income.

“It wasn’t until September 2021 that the Ministry [of Agriculture] announced that beehive collapse was due to a disease called Sacbrood,” explained Mohammed, another beekeeper. Sacbrood is a highly contagious disease for honey bees and originates from the Sacbrood Bee Virus. 

According to experts at the United States Department of Agriculture, “sacbrood-diseased larvae are relatively free from bacteria, laboratory verification is usually based on gross symptoms and the absence of bacteria,” which would explain the late diagnosis.

Mohammed, unlike Zakaria, wasn’t as lucky; beekeeping was his only job. 

“Last year’s production was all ruined due to the disease, and this year will be the same because a solution is yet to be found.” 

To make ends meet, Mohammed had to resort to very effortful solutions. “I am constantly on the lookout for small jobs. Unfortunately, it was impossible for people whose central activity was beekeeping to transition to other sectors,” he added.

The beekeeping industry employs over 36,000 people all over Morocco, most of them centered around the region of Casablanca. For a lot of them, these past two years have been an utter uprooting from the life they knew, helplessly watching as their bees disappeared and their production dwindled.

In January 2022, the head of government, Aziz Akhannouch, had a business meeting with the Minister of Agriculture, Mohamed Sadiki, with the participation of the General Director of the National Office of Food Safety and the Director of the production sectors of the Ministry of Agriculture, in order to study the immediate effects of the bee hive collapse phenomenon and find adequate solutions.

The National Coordination of Moroccan Beekeepers, on the other hand, cites “mismanagement” in regards to how the Interprofessional Federation of Moroccan Beekeepers (under the aegis of the Ministry of Agriculture) handled the crisis facing Moroccan beekeepers today and points out, in a press release, that the Federation’s executive bureau election (2nd of April) will happen without the presence of professional beekeepers from the country’s different cooperatives.