CONAPI is a national cooperative enterprise of beekeeper-members that, together with the sales & marketing branch Alce Nero and Mielizia, commit themselves to work together in a common chain to produce ‘good, clean and fair’ food: this food chain is the thread that links the farmers to the final consumers. The company, which was born as a cooperative in 1978 in the province of Bologna, became the Beekeepers’ National Consortium in 1985. Today, the 233 members, both as individuals and in associations, represent over 600 beekeepers, who collect honey from Piedmont to Sicily from approximately 65.000 beehives and work according to the Internal Statute.
While stressing the territorial typical features and characteristics, Conapi promotes and boosts a good apiculture and represents the first organic honey producer in Italy.
While stressing the territorial typical features and characteristics, Conapi promotes and boosts a good apiculture and represents the first organic honey producer in Italy.
The organic and conventional regional honeys and the royal jelly are always provided with an ‘ID card’ on the label; this way, the consumer can always be aware of the honey origin and find out the name of the beekeeper together with the month of the crop. Thanks to a modern traceability system, the region, the geographic area and the producer for each drum that has been delivered are indicated. After having undergone several strict controls to grant quality and safety, honey is packed never being subject to pasteurization treatments: honey is simply softened at temperatures that never exceed 40°, in order to perfectly keep the flavor, the scent and the nutritive principles. Not only Conapi tries to meet the requirements of the final users offering a different packaging in measure and type (pots of different weight, bags and squeezers), but it also distributes honey in bulk, in 300kg drums or 25kg containers.More than honey
The royal jelly
It is a gelatinous substance, with a white color, a pungent scent and a deep flavor, produced by young bees between their fourth and fourteenth day of life, when they are nursebees. The royal jelly is used to feed the queen and is a renowned food supplement: it is a very rich food and a real mine of substances that improve the metabolic activity at a cellular level. The fresh royal jelly packaging, distributed under Alce Nero brand and other ones, contains 6g of product. This quantity allows to cover 14 days of product consumption, using a practical doser spoon included. Conapi also packs other royal jelly preparations in 7g bags. For instance, the fresh Italian royal jelly with its unmistakable flavor and easily digestible energy is matched with orange blossom honey, together with the stimulating action of the ginseng, without adding additives or colorants.
The pollen
It is made of a multitude of small corpuscles contained in the flowers and it is collected and processed by bees, in order to create small granules that represent a great protein search for human beings too. This product too is subjected to careful organoleptic and laboratory analyses and is both available in glass jars of different sizes and in bulk.
The propolis
It is produced by bees starting from resinous substances that they collect from tree barks and blossoms of different plants such as poplar, elm, birch, horse chestnut, willow, conifers and many else. The propolis is a powerful antiseptic and reinforcing agent due to its medical proprieties. At the moment Conapi sells organic and non-organic Italian propolis in bulk.
Fruits spreads
Conapi produces also fruit spreads, jams and preserves. Since 2001 the cooperative has been using a very innovative machinery for the production of organic jams in order to process fruit reducing the cooking exposure time and keeping the fruit scent and flavors.
The quality of the production and the reference to ethical behavioral and environmentalcodes have always been part of the Conapi’s credo. Conapi began to use control procedures and certifications of external entities, getting: • integrated management systems certification on Quality UNI EN ISO9001 and Environment UNI EN ISO14001; • EMAS registration (Regulation CEE 761/2001) monitoring the environmental impact of the enterprise; • control and certification of biological procedures according to EU Reg. 834/07; • UNI EN ISO 22005 regulation for food chain traceability; • use of an organization model by D.Lgs. 231/2001 “discipline of the administrative responsibility of the institutions”.The wonderful variety of Italian monofloral honeys
During the over thirty years of activity, Conapi has been playing a key role in trying to spread the knowledge of the main Italian monofloral honeys.
