BUCHAREST, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Romania will soon start the "Honey in schools" program by offering a jar of honey per person to 1.4 million children to stimulate the consumption of this healthy product, Daniel Dumitru Botanoiu, state secretary with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, announced on Thursday.

"The 'Honey in schools' program is already a law ...It will come into force on Jan. 1, 2019, with the new budget, an allocation of 16 million euros (18.56 U.S. dollars) per year, and that jar of 350 grams of polyflora honey from the Romanian domestic production will go to each of the 1.4 million children," the official told a celebration event organized by the Association of the Bees' Breeders in Romania, on the occasion of the 60th founding anniversary.

According to the official, Romania ranks first in Europe for honey production, with over 30,000 tonnes in 2017, 13 percent of Europe's honey production.

But the country's honey consumption is still low compared with some Nordic and western European countries.

Data from the Association of the Bees' Breeders in Romania show that despite the growth over the past two years, the honey consumption per inhabitant per year in Romania is far less than 1.5 kg in the Netherlands and Belgium, 2 kg in Germany and 3 kg in the Nordic countries.