Airbus starts honey business

Airbus, the European aircraft manufacturer, has ventured into an unlikely side-business: beekeeping and honey selling.

It all started with a project in which the company wanted to evaluate pollution levels in an around airports.

The method is called biomonitoring and it assesses levels and types of pollutants by analyzing the honey produced by bees nearby.

The bees fly around a 12 square kilometer area and collect pollen and nectar from flowers near the Hamburg airport. The honey they produce afterwards is being analyzed in a nearby laboratory.

Eberhard Schaedlich, beekeeper of the project, talks about the interesting results they registered: ‘The results are very exciting and luckily, I say luckily, every single result shows that pollution levels are well under approved limits for food stuffs.’

The great other advantage of this project is that Airbus is left with approximately 160 kilograms of honey annually, which is potted and distributed further to guests, staff and others.