Beekeeper registration and critical aspects of the legislation

Beekeeping has been practised in Europe for thousands of years and forms anintegral part of its cultural and agriculture heritage. It is considered a growing sector supposedly for a variety and high quality of honey and other apiculture products. In Italy the Decree of December 4, 2009 is established the beekeeping registry. It proposes to act as a guarantor for a correct traceability of all products of the hive. The aim of the beekeeping registry is guarantee an adequate protection and enhancement of the national beekeeping that inevitably passes through improved information on the situation of production and health of the sector. The rule defines this registry as a system for the identification and registration of beekeepers and apiaries, and it seems especially to want rearrange this field by introducing some innovations, as follows: the identification of beekeepers and hives located in Italian territory by assigning a unique identification code to each owner of apiaries, which must be clearly indicated by an appropriate identification sign placed in close proximity to each hive; the mandatory annual communications relating to the same breeding; and the creation of a special national database, similarly as observed in other livestock sectors. Although the Decree has already defined the methods and operating procedures, the registry needs to have an operating manual, which establishes the procedures for implementation. This operating manual would have to issue within 90 days from the enactment of the same decree by a special technical coordination committee, as clearly stated in Article 5. However until now any official communication has been received probably due to a delay in the bureaucratic procedure of establishment of technical coordination committee. On the basis of these considerations, this paper provides an analysis of the current national law in the field of beekeeper registration in order to highlight the most critical aspects. It is interesting to propose a review of the old “Regolamento di Polizia Veterinaria”, considered the increased attention of the consumer in this sector.