Iberiensis Honey
Created in 2012 by the engineers Hélder Garção (Zootechnical), Rui Álvares (Agronomist) and Silvestre Natário (Zootechnical) graduated from the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança. Iberiensis, Lda defines itself as a microenterprise (IAPMEI) that is dedicated to the production and marketing of bee products in the national and international market. As producers, the passion for the sector comes from their grandparents and parents, as beekeepers and farmers dedicated to agriculture.
The academic training reinforced their determination to stay entirely connected to the land, as well as the taste for work in creating and producing endogenous products in unique landscapes, ecosystems, and characteristics of Northern Portugal.
Trás-Os-Montes
They currently have a beekeeping herd, dispersed throughout the municipalities of Bragança (some in the Natural Park of Montesinho), Vila Flor, Boticas and Montalegre, municipalities that are recognized as World Agricultural Heritage by FAO. The differentiation of flowering (vegetative and shrub) by the asymmetry of altitudes in these municipalities allows us to obtain honeys with distinct floral predominances to the detriment of the work activity of the beekeeping herds and the edapho-climatic conditions that are felt annually.
Quality
With regard to quality, Iberiensis, Lda has directed the exploration to the production of monofloral honeys characteristic of the northern region of mainland Portugal, such as rosemary, silva, broom and chestnut honey. This assumption requires a greater effort and in the last 3 years to lots with quantities lower than those foreseen for the beekeeping herd and geographical areas. They use accredited laboratories that perform melissopalynological (pollin) and residue (antibiotic) analyses to determine the pollen loads in each of the honey batches and the absence of antibiotics (tetracyclines and sulfonamides).