Honey captures the quintessence of a geographic area. We beekeepers should learn from the wine making sector, emphasizing the importance of terroir, to let people truly perceive the value of our work.

Mattia Camuffo

Mattia is moving slowly among the beehives. He lifts a cover, takes out a frame, checks the bees on it and looks, on their backs, for the colour mark that identifies the queen bee. Observing him at work, it is easy to understand that this is a delicate job, in which care plays a key role. To ensure the family in his apiary will survive and keep growing, a beekeeper can only put the health of the insects that produce honey at the very heart of their day-to-day work.

Mattia Camuffo started looking after bees when he was 11, with his father. Now that he is in his thirties – he was born in 1989 -, bees and honey have become his job. After taking part in the ReStartApp 2015 “on-campus” course and winning the second prize, he started the honey farm Azienda Agricola Mielificio Sottovalle in 2016. Sottovalle is the name of the village in the municipality of Arquata Scrivia Comune di Arquata Scrivia (Alessandria) where Mattia grew up. There, he has now built a honey extraction workshop, renovating a farm building in front of his parents’ house. He inaugurated it in 2017. “When I was a child, my father had a couple of hives. I used to accompany him, I had fun, and that’s how I learnt more about bees – explains Mattia – Later on, my father decided to sell the beehives, as his job did not leave him the time and energy one needs to take care of bees. It was in 2008 that we bought a new beehive , by the time, I was helping him. In one year, the beehives grew from one to three. From then on, my passion for these insects has grown constantly, together with the number of beehives, and has become a real job.”