Implementing Regulations of The Agriculture Law

The Ministry shall regulate the importation of live bees, and shall grant importation authorizations pursuant to the following conditions: 1. An importer shall be an association, company, or institution with a commercial register including the agricultural activity of importing and exporting live bees. 2. An authorization for importing live bees shall be obtained from the Ministry for each consignment. 3. An importer shall have available a site or more, by means of ownership or leasing, with an area of not less than five dunams each to accommodate bee swarms or sell bee packages. Said site shall be located away from residential areas, schools, parks, bee pastures of local breeders, poultry facilities and livestock barns, and shall be furnished with cold rooms and refrigerated vehicles. 4. A license shall be obtained from the Ministry for said site, and the importer shall prepare the same by establishing sheds, a permanent water source, annexed rooms, and a warehouse, and shall make available feeding and treatment materials and bee boxes (Langstroth hives) on a regular basis. 5. A technical team specialized in bee housing and strengthening shall be employed 75| Implementing Regulations of the Agriculture Law and supervised by an engineer or technician specialized in beekeeping, along with beekeeping workers. 6. An importer shall conclude an annual contract with one station or more for queen rearing and package production in the country of origin, and shall complete the procedures for accrediting the same as an exporter of queens and bee packages with the quarantine agency in the Kingdom. 7. Bee packages or the waste of dead and infected bees shall be destroyed at the port using healthy methods (environmentally friendly incinerators). An importer shall provide a safe way to dispose of waste and damaged and infected bees in bee houses. 8. An importer's record shall not entail any violations of the provisions of the Law and its Regulations with regard to beekeeping for the last five years. 9. An importer shall abide by the Ministry’s instructions upon taking and testing random samples. He shall then transfer the same immediately to bee houses, and shall instantly inform the person who issued the importation approval so that his representative may attend. 10. Importers shall comply with the annual quantity specified by the Ministry for each importer. 11. Beekeepers and suppliers shall abide by the terms and guarantees therebetween to guarantee the rights of both parties. 12. The Ministry shall determine the time periods for importing bees, and it may suspend importation whenever interest so requires. 13. Only bee packages (worker bees with a queen without combs) shall be imported in cages made of wood and wire, or in any other form as approved by the Ministry pursuant to standard packaging methods. 14. Single queen bees shall be imported in special cages, along with attending worker bees. 15. A certificate of origin and a health certificate indicating that imported bees and/or queens are free from any diseases or pests shall be attached, provided that the health certificate be issued not more than two weeks from the bee arrival date. 16. Samples of adult bees taken from bee packages or worker bees attending on queens shall be inspected at the port to ensure that they are free from diseases or pests, especially dangerous pests such as Varroa mites, small hive beetles, Nosema ceranae, or any other diseases specified by the Ministry. 17. The species of Asian bees (Apis cerana) and Indian giant bees (Apis dorsata) shall 76| Implementing Regulations of the Agriculture Law not be imported except for scientific research purposes by scientific agencies and research centers and with the Ministry’s approval. Nor shall queen bees or bee packages of African descent, namely Apis mellifera capensis and Apis mellifera scutellata, be imported. 18. The country of origin shall be free of Asian, African, and European-African hybrid honey bees. 19. The global health situation of bees shall be constantly monitored through reports made by international organizations such as the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in order to take appropriate action against any infected country to prevent the disease from entering the Kingdom.