Working hard collecting honey, I find Marino Matos, who owns about 50 hives in his plot belonging to the Cooperative of Credits and Services Mariana Grajales that is located in San Idelfonso neighborhood on the borders of Guantanamo and El Salvador municipalities.
Marino dedicates almost all of his time to the attention of bees, and tells me that the exquisite care and management of swarms depends on the productive yield to fulfill the commitments to sell honey to the State and thus contribute to the development of this high demand line in the international market.
This beekeeper manages to collect in the year about 2 tons of honey, from a plan of 1, 2 that establishes the contract, a purpose that is agreed in correspondence with the variations of the climate in recent years.
However, the current collection that takes place during the months of October to December is favored by the rains and its abundant flowering and nectar-rich blossoms of plants such as copalillo, the purple bell and varía, conditions that can be improved with the white bell flowers in the month of December.
The conditions are so good that Marino says he can collect honey every 15 days because the bees fill the cells quickly.
Enthused by the good weather for the production of honey and the existence of inputs as wooden pieces for the honeycombs made by the Forestry Enterprise, Marino Matos expresses the will to increase the number of to respond to the Guantanamo authorities’ call to increase the figures of this exportable item.
