Meet the Croatian beekeeper behind the world’s best bee venom

Tvrtko Matijević (Photo credit: Nikola Zoko/Promo PR)

It is known that bee venom helps with inflammatory conditions and increases microcirculation of the blood by 200 times. It also works like natural Botox, tightening facial skin, smoothing wrinkles, and stimulating collagen production.

We spoke to Tvrtko Matijević, a Croatian beekeeper and owner of the BeeVenom brand, which has official certification for producing the highest quality bee venom and bee venom-based products in the world.

Matijević grew up in Zagreb with a love of nature and the countryside. He attended an agricultural school and graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Zagreb. During his high school years, he had a mishap while helping a friend move bees from one location to another, which resulted in 46 bee stings. 

“That story is actually very interesting. A friend asked me to help him move bees from an acacia pasture to a linden pasture in Virovitica, and at the time I only had a torn beekeeping suit with lots of holes. The night was extremely steamy and the bees quite aggressive, so during the migration phase I ‘earned’ as many as 46 stings. The scenes were comical – you carry a beehive with 60,000 bees in it, they sting you, and you can’t take the beehive because then the situation would be 100 times worse,” he told us.

(Photo credit: Nikola Zoko/Promo PR)

Despite this incident, he became interested in beekeeping and eventually grew his hobby from three hives to 150.

When Matijević began beekeeping, his main focus was on producing bee venom, though he also considered other bee products.

In 2015, he developed a unique technology for extracting bee venom and received confirmation from the Dr. Andrija Štampar Institute that his product was the highest quality bee venom in the world. This encouraged him to develop a brand, and in 2021, BeeVenom products were launched on the Croatian market.

(Photo credit: Nikola Zoko/Promo PR)

BeeVenom products are made with bee venom that contains 70% melittin, a protein that is responsible for the benefits of bee venom.

“Bee venom has been known throughout the world since ancient times. For example, the bee venom produced in the world contains 45-55% melittin, while our bee venom produced with my technology, where no bees were harmed at any time, contains 70% melittin,” he says.

Melittin is known to destroy cancer cells, boost the immune system, and reduce inflammation. Bee venom is also known to work as a natural Botox, tightening the skin, smoothing wrinkles, and stimulating collagen production.

The BeeVenom brand is unique because of its high-quality bee venom and the innovative technology used to extract it.

“The products are different in one of the most important segments in the creams, which is that we have bee venom, which is by far the highest quality on the market, and that is incorporated into the creams. There is also another very important item, which is that in the cream you must have a carrier that will successfully penetrate the poison through the skin cells, and not that most of the poison ends up on the skin.

(Photo credit: Nikola Zoko/Promo PR)

Today, none of the bee venom creams except ours have that, so people who use BeeVenom touch creams feel relieved and the results are visible already after the first application of any of our products. By the way, all our creams can be bought on our web shop www.beevenomtouch.com and on other web shops and in most pharmacies in Croatia.”

Matijević’s passion for nature and beekeeping has allowed him to create a brand that is not only eco-friendly but also beneficial for human health.

“The first product that proved to be the best was the massage cream, as people suffering from multiple sclerosis and arthritis literally asked us where we had been before – since their lives were greatly eased with the cream. In addition, the older population with painful and swollen joints, sciatica, back, and leg pain, praises us so much that we quickly realised we had a revolutionary product.

However, a specific thing happened in the whole story, and that was the launch of the face cream on the market, which achieved enormous success, and we were quite shocked that the sales of that cream practically equaled the sales of the massage cream for pain.

Also, the anti-cellulite cream with bee venom is very popular during the warmer period of the year, and the recent novelty – the face serum with a high concentration of venom – has achieved excellent results. We are very pleased and grateful for numerous comments on social media and reviews because we realised that people simply love our products and are extremely satisfied with their effects,” he adds.

(Photo credit: Nikola Zoko/Promo PR)

Matijević has already successfully positioned the brand on many foreign markets and has further plans to expand.  

“In our business, where the most important raw material is in our hands, the goal of doing business on foreign markets has already started to be realised, and we are already present with great success on the Swedish, Austrian, and Slovenian markets. Of course, we have inquiries for other markets, and we are currently negotiating for the Middle Eastern market, which we hope will be realised soon,” he concludes.