Beekeeping and bee product quality control in Taiwan

Taiwan's unique geographical location and tropical/subtropical climates, provide an abundant supply of rich and diverse nectar-bearing plants promoting Taiwan to run popular beekeeping activities with a known history of 300 years. However, modern beekeeping started in the early 20^th century by introducing the Italian strain of the European honey bee (Apis mellifera ligustica) from Japan. Since then, many subspecies of A. mellifera have been introduced to Taiwan, leading to a booming beekeeping industry. There are ca. 167,000 managed colonies of European honey bees by ca. 1,100 beekeepers in Taiwan producing 13,260 tons of honey as well as 575 tons of royal jelly in 2021. Additionally, Taiwan has strong bee research intentions ranging from bee biology, diseases, and pest management, as well to the engineering of bee products. These activities are currently being pursued by eight laboratories in academic institutes. Studies have found that climate change and the use of pesticides have affected the beekeeping industry in Taiwan deeply. Moreover, parasitic mites (Varroa destructor) and Asian giant hornets (Vespa mandarinia) are the major enemies found in Taiwan apiaries. Government, academic, and private agencies have raised policies and strategies to overcome those issues to reach colony health management goals and high-quality bee products.