CCTV News: my country has a long history of beekeeping, and the number of bee colonies and beekeepers are among the top in the world. Now, it is the season of spring and flowers blooming, and beekeepers in many places in the south are also ushering in the peak production season.

At 12:30 noon, smoke from cooking rose from a rapeseed field in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province. In this movable iron house, beekeeper Xi Qiaonu is preparing a family's lunch.

Xi Qiaonu's home is 3 kilometers away. In order to release bees to collect honey, she and her husband lived in the wild. These two days, grandchildren and granddaughter came to visit them. It was rare for the family to reunite, and her lunch was prepared more abundantly.

Xi Qiaonu and her husband Chen Zhonglin have raised more than 200 boxes of bees. All year round, they chase flowers and honey during different flowering periods. At the end of March, I collected rapeseed nectar in my hometown Jiangsu. In early May, I had to go to Shandong to collect locust flower honey, and then headed north to Jilin, Inner Mongolia and other places. In winter, we have to go back to the south to sort out the beehives and prepare for the spring of the coming year.

Chen Zhonglin, a beekeeper in Yancheng, Jiangsu, has been keeping beekeepers for more than 40 years. He said that although he is separated from his family because of work and family, the development of economy and technology in recent years has made their life of transitioning all year round no longer so hard.

Every afternoon is the time for Chen Zhonglin's family to shake honey. He said that on a sunny day, a box of bees can produce 10 kilograms of honey every two days. In recent years, he has signed an order with a honey company. After collecting honey at a beeyard, a company will drive to purchase it, which is much more convenient than before. After dealing with bees for most of their life, Chen Zhonglin has already found professional fun. "Smart + Fixed Point" The new generation of beekeepers' beekeeping model has evolved and upgraded

The reporter learned from the China Beekeeping Society that there are about 400,000 beekeepers in my country, and more than half are over 50 years old. They usually adopt traditional beekeeping methods like Chen Zhonglin's family, which require years of mobile transition. However, nowadays, the new generation of beekeepers have begun to apply new technological means to the beekeeping industry, achieving cost reduction and efficiency improvement.

At a beekeeping base in Miyun, Beijing, the reporter met 40-year-old Liu Jinliang. His cooperative has more than 3,000 boxes of bees, with less than 10 people. Unlike traditional beekeepers, he has an additional beekeeping tool - a mobile phone.

Liu Jinliang, president of a beekeeping cooperative in Miyun District, Beijing, introduced that the induction probe can monitor the temperature and humidity inside the beehive and can be displayed on the mobile phone.

Through the sensors and cameras installed in the hive, Liu Jinliang can see the activities of bees entering and leaving the hive and analyze the reproduction and production of bees.

In addition to smart beehives, in this apiary farm, there are also multi-box beehives that are different from traditional beehives. This beekeeping method is the key to improving production capacity.

Different from the traditional transition beekeeping model, Liu Jinliang and others also adopted the fixed-point beekeeping model, and the cooperative only took honey once in a flowering period. The use of new technologies reduces labor costs and improves management efficiency.

Industry experts introduced that with the optimization and upgrading of beekeeping production model, the beekeeping industry is gradually getting rid of its dependence on high-intensity physical labor. China's honey fragrance spreads overseas, and the export volume of bee products has been rising year by year. my country is the world's largest honey exporter. In recent years, honey export volume has shown a strong trend of continuous growth. With the arrival of the peak production season, how are the operating conditions of honey export companies?

In the warehouse of this food company in Yancheng, Jiangsu, buckets of honey are neatly arranged and are waiting to be sent to Japan in the near future. According to the person in charge, in the past two years, companies have taken the initiative to participate in various exhibitions. At the same time, it focuses on developing products targeting the tastes of consumers in different countries. In 2024, it successfully obtained the first batch of China's honey product manufacturers exported to the EU, and its foreign trade map has been continuously expanding. Gao Hua, deputy general manager of a food company in Yancheng, Jiangsu, introduced that the honey eaten by ordinary people in each country is different. Japan is the nectar of flowers, and Saudi Arabia is the nectar of dates. In 2024, Saudi Arabia made more than 200 tons and expanded the Japanese market in 2025. Now it has completed more than 300 tons of orders.

Another honey export company has also achieved good results in more than 5 years. With high-quality honey source and production technology, the company has added 4 new export destination countries in 2024 alone.

At present, the proportion of this company's foreign trade share has increased to 70%. To this end, the company updated its production equipment and added production lines in 2025.

Statistics from the China Bee Products Association show that China's export volumes of honey, royal jelly, beeswax and other products rank first in the world, and its export destinations involve more than 100 countries and regions.

Yang Rong, president of the China Bee Products Association, introduced that in recent years, the export volume of my country's bee product has been steadily increasing. In 2024, my country's total exports of bee products were 183,600 tons, an increase of 11.71% year-on-year.