Narendra Singh Tomar launches portal and shopping corners to promote marketing of pure honey

Agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar, on Wednesday, launched a portal - Madhukranti - to bring transparency by introducing traceability system in sourcing of honey.

Tomar also launched Honey Corner - specially designed space in Nafed’s stores dedicated to sale of honey.

Tomar said that these two initiatives will help in promoting apiculture and would lead to increase in income of farmers.

Madhukranti portal, an initiative of National Bee Board (NBB, is being developed for online registration to achieve traceability source of Honey and other beehive products on a digital platform.

He said that the production of honey has started transforming lives of farmers.

“India produces 1.2 lakh tonnes of honey, half of it is being exported. The export of honey and other beehive products has been doubled. These initiatives will bring competitiveness and transparency in the trade,” Tomar said.

The newly launched Madhukranti portal will check adulteration and contamination in honey. The system will have end-to-end record to track the source of honey.

“Online registration of honey other beehive products will help in checking the quality and source of adulteration of honey. The system will also enable consumers to know the source of honey and assure quality of the products,” said agriculture commissioner S K Malhotra, who is also handling the charge of horticulture commissioner.

He said that necessary functionalities are being developed on the portal to create a database of all stakeholders involved in honey and other hive products’ production, sales and marketing chain.

“On-line registration of beekeepers on portal is being launched in the first phase, followed by registration of other stake-holders in honey trade. All sales transactions in honey trading shall be captured through a mobile app in second phase to achieve desired results in the area of honey source traceability,” he said.

The government has also launched sale of honey from dedicated sale space at Nafed stores. The apex cooperative society is planning to develop honey corners in over 200 Nafed stores to promote marketing of honey and other beehive products.