Panama may be famous for its canals, tropical forests and incredible biodiversity, but there is another small creature quietly supporting the country's agriculture: the bee. Beekeeping, or apicultura in Spanish, has been growing in Panama and is becoming an increasingly interesting activity for rural communities, farmers and entrepreneurs. It is an industry that produces far more than honey. Bees pollinate crops, support biodiversity and provide an additional source of income for agricultural families.
Panama's tropical environment offers bees an extraordinary variety of flowering plants throughout much of the year. From farmland and coffee plantations to tropical forests, gardens and mangroves, there is an enormous diversity of potential food sources for colonies. This makes Panama particularly interesting for producing different types of honey, while also creating opportunities for beekeepers to place hives near agricultural areas where pollination can improve crop production.
The country's beekeeping industry has grown considerably. According to Panama's Ministry of Agricultural Development, 652 beekeepers were counted in 2025, managing 15,529 hives and producing approximately 67,621 gallons of honey. The number of registered beekeepers increased by 3.2 percent compared with the previous year, while average production per hive also increased.
Chiriquí is Panama's honey powerhouse
One of the most important regions for beekeeping is Chiriquí, in western Panama. The province has extensive agricultural areas, a variety of climates and an abundance of flowering plants, making it particularly suitable for apiculture.
In 2024, Chiriquí accounted for 8,915 hives and more than 37,000 gallons of honey, making it by far the country's largest honey producing province at that time. Veraguas was another major producer, followed by Herrera and several other provinces.
This is particularly interesting because Chiriquí is also one of Panama's most important agricultural regions. The relationship between bees and agriculture therefore goes far beyond producing jars of honey. Bees move between flowers and crops, transferring pollen and helping plants produce fruit and seeds.
For farmers, the bees can therefore be just as valuable for what they do as for what they produce.
The bees of Panama
When people imagine beekeeping, they generally picture the familiar European honeybee, Apis mellifera. In Panama, however, the story is more complicated.
Commercial honey production largely relies on Africanized honeybees, descendants of bees introduced into the Americas that subsequently spread throughout tropical regions. They are known for their productivity but can also be more defensive than some European honeybee strains, meaning beekeepers need proper equipment, training and careful hive management.
But Panama is also home to an extraordinary diversity of native bees.
Among the most fascinating are the stingless bees, known in Spanish as abejas sin aguijón. These include native groups such as meliponines and trigonas. They produce much smaller quantities of honey than commercial honeybees, but their honey can be highly valued and their traditional management is an important part of tropical beekeeping.
For someone interested in Panama's natural world, this is one of the most fascinating aspects of the country's bee culture. You don't have to think only about large commercial hives. Panama has an entire world of native bees that live in forests, gardens and agricultural landscapes.
More than just honey
It is easy to think that the purpose of keeping bees is simply to produce honey. In reality, pollination may be even more important.
When bees travel from flower to flower collecting nectar and pollen, they transfer pollen between plants. This can dramatically improve the production of many crops. Recent discussion among Panamanian researchers and beekeepers has emphasized that the economic value generated through pollination can be many times greater than the value of the honey itself.
This is especially important for agricultural products such as fruits and vegetables. Crops including melons, watermelons, cucumbers, tomatoes and coffee can benefit from pollination.
So a beekeeper isn't simply producing a sweet food product.
They are also maintaining a workforce of thousands of tiny agricultural workers.
Honey is only one of the products
A healthy hive can provide much more than honey. Panamanian beekeepers can also work with beeswax, pollen, propolis and royal jelly, each of which has different uses and potential markets. Panama's agricultural authorities specifically identify these products as part of the wider economic potential of beekeeping.
This gives small farmers an opportunity to diversify their income. Instead of depending entirely on one crop, a rural family can potentially combine farming with honey production and other hive products.
For someone starting on a relatively small scale, beekeeping can also be attractive because the land requirements can be modest compared with many other agricultural activities. The challenge is learning how to manage the colonies properly.
A surprisingly demanding profession
Beekeeping may look peaceful from the outside, but managing thousands of insects requires considerable knowledge.
Beekeepers need to understand the behavior of the colony, recognize whether the queen is healthy, monitor food reserves, control pests and diseases, manage swarming and know when the honey is ready to harvest.
Panama's climate creates its own challenges. Heavy tropical rainfall can affect flowering cycles and therefore the availability of nectar and pollen. Unusual rainfall outside normal seasonal patterns can disrupt the relationship between flowering plants and bee colonies. The MIDA has specifically identified irregular rainfall as one of the challenges facing Panamanian honey production.
Agricultural chemicals can also be a serious problem. Reports from Panamanian beekeepers have described colonies being damaged or lost when pesticides and fungicides are used in surrounding agricultural areas. Some producers have reported losing extremely large proportions of their colonies because of agrochemical exposure.
This demonstrates how closely beekeeping is connected to the health of the surrounding environment.
Panama is investing in better beekeeping
The government and agricultural research institutions are increasingly supporting the industry.
The Instituto de Innovación Agropecuaria de Panamá, or IDIAP, has been working on improved hive management, queen breeding, colony health, monitoring technology and the development of flowering plant resources. Research projects have also established areas containing plants that provide food for bees during periods when natural floral resources are limited.
There are also training programs for producers. MIDA's beekeeping improvement program provides technical assistance and training to Panamanian producers interested in receiving support.
This is important because successful beekeeping isn't something that can simply be learned by putting a box in the garden and waiting for honey. Understanding bee biology, disease prevention and colony management is essential.
Beekeeping and mangroves
One of the most interesting recent developments is the use of beekeeping as a conservation tool.
In coastal Panama, researchers and community groups have been developing projects that combine beekeeping with mangrove conservation. A 2026 project supported by IDIAP and several academic and international partners established apiaries as part of a program promoting sustainable livelihoods in mangrove ecosystems.
This creates an intriguing relationship between bees and conservation.
Instead of cutting down a natural area to create another agricultural activity, communities can potentially generate income by maintaining the ecosystem and taking advantage of the flowering plants that already exist there.
In this sense, a hive can become more than a source of honey.
It can become an incentive to keep the surrounding landscape alive.
A small industry with considerable potential
Compared with some major honey producing countries, Panama's beekeeping industry remains relatively small. But that may actually be part of its potential.
The country has enormous biodiversity, a tropical climate, extensive agricultural production and an international tourism industry interested in natural and locally produced products.
Panamanian honey can therefore be marketed not simply as generic honey but as a product connected to the country's forests, farms, mountains and tropical landscapes.
There is also growing interest in native stingless bees, sustainable agriculture and products that support biodiversity. For environmentally conscious consumers, the story behind the honey can be almost as important as the honey itself.
The future of Panama's bees
The future of beekeeping in Panama will depend on several things. Farmers and beekeepers need better access to training and financing. The use of agricultural chemicals needs to be managed carefully. Natural habitats need to be protected, and producers need reliable markets for their honey and other hive products.
But the direction is encouraging.
In just a few years, Panama has seen significant growth in the number of registered beekeepers and hives. Government institutions are providing technical assistance, researchers are experimenting with better management and queen breeding, and new projects are connecting beekeeping with conservation and sustainable rural development.
And perhaps the most important lesson is that honey is only the visible part of the story.
Every jar of Panamanian honey represents an entire ecosystem of flowers, forests, farms and insects working together. The beekeeper simply provides the carefully managed home where the colony can thrive.
In a country as biologically rich as Panama, that makes beekeeping much more than an agricultural business. It is a fascinating intersection between food production, rural livelihoods, biodiversity and conservation.
And somewhere among Panama's coffee farms, tropical forests and flowering gardens, thousands of tiny bees are quietly doing one of the country's most important jobs.