Saudi Gazette report

AL-BAHA — Al-Baha, one of the Kingdom’s prime tourist destinations situated on the Sarawat Mountain ranges, is also famous as a major center for beekeeping and honey production. The region boasts of producing around 800 ton of honey from 125,000 beehives annually, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Al-Baha has proven to be an ideal place for beekeeping. Flowers and trees vary between the temperate Sarawat Mountains in summer and the warm Tihama plains in winter. Despite the succession of beekeeping generations in the region, the profession has remained a modest craft in terms of production, marketing, and economic return for quite some time.

There are around 1,600 beekeepers in Al-Baha who collect honey throughout the year from Hejaz and Tihama regions on an average seven times a year and this is in accordance with the type of flowers feeding the bees. There are different strains of bees and these include mainly local ones. The geographical features of Al-Baha provide with the appropriate environment for beekeepers to produce honey of the finest quality.

Visitors to the region can see beehives scattered in the mountains of Al-Baha as beekeeping continues to remain the profession of some of the people of Al-Baha since ancient time. In the past, they adopted traditional and primitive methods for beekeeping wherein bees were gathered in some places of mountain burrows and gaps and tree cracks.

It was not easier for beekeepers to know some of the vital information with regard to beekeeping such as dates of their reproduction; the age of each bee in the beehive; diseases that infect them and their treatment. However, at present beekeepers have a thorough knowledge of such things after they started this as a thriving economic activity and modern craft.

Al-Baha is distinguished by the production of different types of honey such as Majra, Daram, Samar, Al-Saifi, Talh, Shawka, and Sidrah. Each type has its own color and taste. Sidra is reddish yellow while Shawka is black and Majra, which is considered a rare type, is white. Most famous among them are Sidra, Shawka and Samar, which are of high quality and are distinguished by their pleasant smell.

Honey is distinguished by the special smell and taste which helps to identify the type of the honey. All types of honey have a special smell which is determined by the plant origin from which honey is taken. Al-Baha hosts International Honey Festival every year. It showcases the best and finest types of honey such as Sidra Al-Saifi, Sidra Al-Tihami, Dahyan, Majra and Dhurma.