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 ABOUT
APIACTA
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
SELECTED PAPERS
APIMONDIA PUBLISHING HOUSE
NEWS and EVENTS
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Apimedica and Apiquality International Forum 2008
Rome, Italy 9-12 June 2008
1st Announcement
Symposium on General Management and Best Beekeeping Practice
"Beekeeping Simple and Clear"
Bucharest - Romania
September 11-14, 2008
The XXXXth Apimondia Congress
Melbourne, Australia
9 – 14 September, 2007
www.apimondia2007.com
Traditional Holiday of Ukrainian Beekeepers
Savior of the Honey Feast Day
Visit to Kiev, August 17-19, 2007
1st Balkan Countries Beekeeping
Congress and Exhibition
29 March – 1 April 2007, Istanbul, Turkey
“Balkan Beekeeping Honeymoon”
Minutes of APIMONDIA Executive Council meeting
Bucharest, Romania,
12th-14th May 2006
APISLAVIA
www.apislavia.org
Balkan Federation of Beekeeping Associations
www.apibalcanica.org
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Homepage >
About > History
APIMONDIA FOUNDATION
APIMONDIA INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF BEEKEEPING TECHNOLOGY AND ECONOMY - IITEA
A True Story
Cristian Constantinescu, Director IITEA
Erika Dumitrascu, Chief editor, Apimondia Publishing House
Marta Giogia, Economic Director, IITEA
Bucharest, February, 2002
The Beginnings of IITEA
In 1965 Prof. Veceslav Harnaj became President of APIMONDIA. At that time Prof. Harnaj was also Chairman of the Romanian Beekeeping Association and enjoyed national and international appreciation. This could not go unnoticed by some of the Romanian political leaders of the time who decided to tacitly accept him. With a good diplomatic behavior and a very focused mind, Prof. Harnaj succeeded in getting a certain “business freedom” which was unusual in a communist, state-owned, economy.
Under these circumstances, in 1966 Prof. Harnaj set up a small printing shop and the Apimondia Publishing House which produced the magazine Apiacta. At that time, private printing shops were illegal in Romania. Only the state printing enterprises were authorized to print. Prof. Harnaj obtained the tacit agreement of the authorities on the basis that all printings were in foreign languages and distributed outside Romania. Later on, the printing shop was allowed to sell in Romania since beekeeping was not considered “dangerous” to the political regime.
IITEA -Business Environment
Apart from selling printings, Prof. Harnaj entered a variety of import-export and even transit trade activities (purchasing from Russia - USSR and Hungary and selling in Italy and France) with beekeeping products, in particular beewax and beekeeping equipment, paying no duties or taxes according to Art. 1 of Decree 370/1970. At that time in Romania, only the state import/export enterprises were allowed to perform such activities.
Encouraged by his first business success, Prof. Harnaj turned the Publishing House into the Institute of Beekeeping Technology and Economy (IITEA) in 1970. To serve the purpose, Prof. Harnaj introduced the term “economic annex” (Decree 370/1970) which even at that time (state owned economy and no private property) did not have a legal basis. Maybe he just wanted to say that the unit was a branch/representative of a foreign organization to avoid conflict with Romanian authorities for his operations. In spite of the difficult economic environment but taking advantage of weaknesses in the communist rigid economy, Prof. Harnaj managed to make money, invested them into buildings both for IITEA and the Romanian Beekeeping Association and even purchased a villa in Castel Porziano near Rome, Italy.
In those times for a Romanian citizen it was illegal to hold western currency and take money out of Romania. Romanian citizens were not allowed to hold properties outside Romania. Prof. Harnaj also intended to purchase a palace downtown Rome on Corso Vittorio Emanuele not far from Confagricoltura and Apimondia offices. Secretary General Silvestro Cannamela realized the risks Prof. Harnaj was taking upon himself and tried as much as he could to temper the activities which were only normal in a capitalist free market society but banned in a totalitarian communist regime. L.R.J. van Rappard, a prominent member of the Executive Council of Apimondia, used to say that Prof. Harnaj had a brilliant business personality who would have been a very wealthy, respected and honored person in his country.
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