Cassandra forest fire burns honey industry

Cassandra forest fire burns honey industry

5 September 2006

published by www.ekathimerini.com

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Athens, Greece — The devastating recent fire in Cassandra, in the northern area of Halkidiki, has also destroyed thousands of beehives, hurting Greece’s honey industry.

Sources in the industry, which produces an estimated 12 million tons of honey annually, say the forest that held the 7,000 beehives destroyed by the fire needs at least a decade to recover.

Dimitris Tselios of the National Agricultural Research Foundation told Kathimerini that the industry relies on pine trees for about 7 million tons of their annual honey production. “The fire, however, destroyed one of the country’s most important pine forests,” Tselios said, referring to Cassandra.

The fire, which burned 5,000 hectares of forest in the area, did considerable damage to the ecosystem in Cassandra.

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