สำนักงานราชบัณทิตยสภา

The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Volume IV - 2012 79  Siriwat Wongsiri, Chanpen Chanchoa and Pichai Kongpitak This year 2012 is the 80 th anniversary of H.M. the Queen’s Birthday (12 th August). During this auspicious time, H.M.’s message for sustainable agriculture and conservation is that the forests are home of thousands of plant species, which need both “domesticated” and wild bees for pollination in order to produce organic honey and provide food for humans as well as thousands of wild animal species that inhabit the forests. Keywords: Organic honey, Asian honey bees, bee fl ora Introduction Organic honey is a pure healthy honey from unpolluted virgin forests free from environmental pollutants.The organic honey in the kingdom of Thailand is new and innovation research is needed since there are no records in the literatures. Mostly the normal traditional beekeeping in Thailand is possible to be changed to the organic beekeeping in many bee-yards. It is necessary to educate the beekeepers and vertify the standard of organic honey in Thailand. The average annual honey production of a traditional hive is 3-5 kg/annum, while that of a box hive is 5-10 kg/annum. In areas with beekeeping potential, there are two or more harvests resulting from multiple fl owering periods. In the country, about 10,000 metric tons of honey are produced annually (Wongsiri et.al , 2010). The types of honeys produced in Thailand are well known according to their seasons and their botanical origins. These types include Dimocarpus fumitus (Longan), Eupatorium odortum , and other wild plants honeys. The prices of these honeys vary from USD 5 to USD 10 per/kg. Longan honey is in especially high demand in the country and this kind of honey can be exported as the organic honey in the future. The majority of beekeepers extract honey by the modern beekeeping method, while some big company beekeepers with modern hives extract their honeys using machine honey extractors. This method has to be modi fi ed to be the standard or organic beekeeping methods. Now in China organic honey is produced from the Asian honey bee Apis cerana more than one million colonies in the forest. Bee fl ora and the beekeeping practice of Asian honey bees need not use pesticides and anti-biotics.