Country

Switzerland

Switzerland produces only about 3,000 tonnes of honey per year, roughly one-third of domestic demand, but the small national harvest hides an unusually varied honey landscape. Agroscope counts about 17,500 beekeepers and 165,000 colonies, meaning Swiss beekeeping remains dominated by relatively small apiaries. The country moves from chestnut-rich Ticino to alpine meadows, high valleys and conifer forests capable of producing dark honeydew honey. Agroscope recognizes rapeseed, sweet chestnut, acacia, dandelion, rhododendron and fir/spruce honey among Switzerland's important monoflorals. In Ticino alone, one beekeeper harvests acacia in Mendrisiotto, multifloral honey around Lugano and rhododendron high in the Bedretto Valley. Switzerland also preserves populations of its native European dark honeybee, Apis mellifera mellifera, although genetic studies have found introgression from imported bees even inside conservation areas. Switzerland therefore gives Atlas a wonderful vertical story: chestnut forest → valley → alpine flowers → dark forest honeydew.