posted on

FEELING THE BUZZ IN MONTENEGRO

An EU-funded project supports the Kolašin Beekeepers’ Association to attract more young people to beekeeping as a business. The Perišić family from Kolašin, a small town in north-east Montenegro, bought several bee colonies in 2022, and are already enjoying quality honey from their own production. The work to produce this harvest has been done by thousands of bees – and one twenty-year-old student of economics. Together with eight other young enthusiasts, Milica Perišić has recently taken up beekeeping thanks to a Kolašin Beekeepers’ Association project which promotes this hobby among young people.
The Perišić family have been interested in beekeeping since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic when there was an increased focus on natural products. The Beekeepers’ Association project came at the right time, giving Milica the opportunity and motivation to confidently venture into beekeeping. Milica believes beekeeping is a serious opportunity for development, even though it is only a hobby providing for family and friends for now.
“First of all, this is a great way to spend my free time: to spend some time in nature and observe these incredible small creatures, but also, this is a great opportunity to make money – and I won’t give up,” Milica says.
She admits that people find it unusual for a young woman to be engaged in beekeeping. “Sometimes they make jokes when I look for books and magazines about beekeeping, because they often think of it as a hobby for older, retired people, but eventually everyone is interested in learning more about my hobby,” Milica adds. She spends a lot of time in Podgorica due to her studies, but whenever she can, she comes back to Kolašin. Milica says that in the future she can imagine herself living in this town which she perceived as a holdback while she was a high school student.
“There is a great demand for bee products, while the current production in Montenegro doesn’t meet the needs of the market and we wanted to use this opportunity to keep our young people here so they don’t move to bigger cities,” says Bogoljub.
The Beekeepers’ Association has been promoting beekeeping for 20 years, and they see the past year as the most successful in these efforts. Bogoljub Bulatović is the President of the Association and he explains that until five years ago it was functioning as a traditional community of beekeepers but that then they decided to take action and bring more people, with a specific focus on young people, into beekeeping.
Article and photography source: WeBalkans

PROJECT