Scorching summer takes toll on bees and honey harvests in France

France produces 20,000 tonnes of honey each year, but successive heatwaves and persistent drought across Europe this summer are impacting bee populations as flowering plants dry out and colonies struggle to find food. Beekeeper Romain Lacotte and his family farm 1,000 hives in Haute-Corrèze, central France, an area considered one of the country's natural water towers. But even there, he tells RFI, high temperatures and lack of rain are taking their toll.

By RFI