State-of-the-art apiary ‘Oros Macheras’, the first honey farm in Cyprus open to the public, has recently been officially inaugurated.
“It is the first apiary that people can visit and learn about the honey and the bees. Our goal is to educate people in protecting the bees as this is vital to our existence,” general manager of the bee farm Menelaos Philippou told the Sunday Mail.
The apiary is part of the beekeeping villages of the Larnaca district and is located in an open space between the villages of Melini and Odou.
For the construction of the 400 square metre premises an investment of €300,000 was needed, and the project has been co-financed by European and local government funds, something the Philippou family had hoped for years would happen.
“We are confident that this new space will open new business avenues for us, which concern the hosting of tourism and events. Our goal is also to establish the Oros Machera honey as one of the leading honey brands in the Cypriot market,” Philippou commented.
The company currently has 2,000 beehives in different areas of Cyprus to make honey from the different plants the bees feed on in various parts of the island, thus providing different flavours of honey from the nectar.
Though the space is new, as is the idea of opening it to the public, the Philippou family has been engaged in beekeeping since 1983.
Apart from the Oros Machera honey, the original product, the company now makes other bee products such as pollen, royal jelly, propolis, pure beeswax and soaps.
The production of many of them has been made possible by the new premises and modern machinery, but the Oros Machera honey has been around for years and has in the past received several prestigious awards.
In 2017, leading food experts from 17 different countries singled out the Cypriot honey for its unique taste and awarded it with the Superior Taste Award of International Taste Institute (iTQi).
Two years later, another major international award was added, by winning the Silver Award at the London International Honey Awards 2019, in which more than 150 companies from around the world participated.
Deputy Minister of Tourism Savvas Perdios and MPs from the Larnaca district as well as several other officials, customers and other friends of the company were present at the inauguration last month.
For more info call 22-622305 or visit the company’s facebook page https://www.facebook.com/orosmaxaira/
