Table 2.

Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) matrix of the beekeeping sector in the surveyed area.

Strengths	Weaknesses
-Strong motivation of beekeepers -Collaboration among beekeepers -Collaboration among different generations of beekeepers -Advances in genetic selection	-Lack of time and labour for facing the adoption of new time-consuming and labour-intensive practices (e.g., new practices to control the varroa mite) -Lack of financial resources for bearing higher management costs (e.g., supplemental feeding and intensive transhumance) -Scarce technical endowments (i.e., equipment and machineries) -Lack of expertise among the younger generations of beekeepers -Lack of effective marketing strategies in the beekeeping sector -Lack of beekeeper skills for the sale of hive products
Opportunities	Threats
-Recent increase of retail prices of honey bee products (FGs took place in 2018, a year characterized by an exceptional increase in the selling prices) -Public interest in bees as environmental bioindicators (“environmental sentinels”) -Consumers’ demand for typical honey productions (e.g., mountain blossom honey)	-Reduced strength of the honey bee colonies due to climatic, anthropic (pesticides), and biotic stresses -Significant decline in the production of honey and other bee products (e.g., pollen) -Increase of varroa infestation and other diseases (e.g., Nosema ceranae) -Failure in honey bee queen mating -Insufficient and mistargeted public financial support to the beekeeping sector -Lower prices of low-quality honey supplied by foreign competitors on the market -Lack of knowledge transfer and technical advisory services for the beekeeping sector at the regional and national levels