Honey Bee World

I am hearing 1.80-1.86, if your not a US producer you are not likely to be offered this price.
Seems the media attack awhile back on foreign circumvented honey, no pollen in honey on store shelves , and the disruption of illegal trade from China, which reportedly said an estimated 50 M lbs had been eliminated from the US market, has caused this.This and a short US honey crop plus a reportedly world shortage of White honey.A drought in South America has added fuel to the fire.
Canadian price offerings remain well below what U S producers are being offered and there is not much honey left in Canada.Producers in the southern hemisphere are being offered less than last years price compliments of the GMO problem in Europe and lack of competitive buyers for their honey.

Dutch Gold is currently selling 5 gallon buckets of wildflower honey for $114.60. That's $1.91 per pound of honey with a free bucket. http://www.dutchgoldhoney.com/store/hon ... ower-Honey

I don't know what bulk prices are on empty buckets with lids. My local bee supply place sells buckets for $7 each, down to $6.35 each for a case of 144 buckets.

$114.60 - $6.35 = $108.25 / 60 = $1.80/lb

Odds are Dutch Gold is getting better prices on buckets than $6.35. Even if they are only paying $3 a bucket:

$114.60 - #3.00 = $111.60 / 60 = $1.86/lb

This is the price Dutch Gold is SELLING their honey for in 5 gallon buckets. Who knows what they would sell barrels for. No business can afford to sell products lower than their cost for very long. And that price leaves nothing for them processing and filtering the honey either. If other packers are having to pay $1.80-$1.86, Dutch Gold is going to have to pay that too. Either Dutch Gold is getting a ton of honey really cheap and mixing it with the $1.80 stuff they are buying, or else packers aren't paying the $1.80 price yet.

Now I'd definitely believe it if producers were selling to sideliners who do small scale packing, and producers were getting $1.90 a pound in the barrel. I know smaller commercial beekeepers who sell everything to sideliners who pack their own, and the commercials are getting close to $2 a pound.

You can be sure Dutch Gold is not losing money selling honey, no matter what the price is,for 5 gallon buckets or a one lb jar.Not unusual for a packer to carry a 6months or more inventory of supply.What was the price 6 months ago? What was the price of honey from India, Vietnam and Argentina this fall.?What does the label say as to the country of origin?Packers are the biggest market manipulators of all and they are best at price manipulation.But they may have wised up a bit from the theory that he who has the lowest price sales the most.Take a bunch of crap out of the market and all of sudden quality commands a premium price and or its essential for your label or to meet customer demands.That wholesale buyer seems to be demanding that these supplier packers better smarten up,that funny tasting stuff your packing ,that lacks trace ability and pollen does not measure up to what most American producer packer 's are putting on the shelf .If you look at the growth in the total poundage of the US honey market in the last 10 years you will see the US packers have been having a very good PROFITABLE time, all because honey is cheap and foreign honey is the cheapest of all.By including 10 cents worth of honey in your cereal product you can sell more.That magic wholesome word "honey" SELLS more product

In many ways the Asian parasitic brood mite is similar to the Varroa mite. It is large and reddish brown and can be seen adhering to brood. In contrast to Varroa, however, this mite is longer than it is wide and runs quickly across the comb.

Anyone have current bulk honey prices handy?

Hi Allan,

This okay

http://www.honey.com/honey-industry/hon ... wholesale/

Or this

http://www.honey.com/honey-industry/hon ... th-retail/

Or this

http://www.honey.com/honey-industry/hon ... lk-prices/

Cheers, Joerg

http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/ams/FVMHONEY.pdf

I've heard of US commercial beekeepers getting $1.90 a couple months ago.

Yes. Thanks everyone. I posted most of these on the diary the other day, but I am wondering what is happening right now if anyone has heard.

This reminded me, though, of the Mid US Honey producers Market Hotline number I posted in the diary some time back.

A quick honeybeeworld.com search at http://www.honeybeeworld.com/beesearch.htm brought up these results: http://www.honeybeeworld.com/searchresu ... 1768188j10

I posted the number -- 1-763-658-4193 -- on September 11, 2002 and the number is still active.

I called and they report prices for white mostly around $1.85 with one over $2. Again, no dates and the last update was a month ago.

At http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/ams/FVMHONEY.pdf, I see this:

Prices paid to Canadian Beekeepers for unprocessed, bulk honey by
packers and importers in U. S. currency, f.o.b. shipping point, containers
included unless otherwise stated. Duty and crossing charges extra. Cents
per pound. Mixed Flowers White $1.56

Again, no date is given. That works out to $2.08 CAD, which is no change from a Canadian beekeeper's perspective, but I suspect this data is old.

We have to rely on rumours it seems.

Hello All,

One thing that surprised me about honey pricing was a comment in one other forum were it was stated that someone (and probably many) sell retail, 'natural' honey (unfiltered, wax, bee-parts etc. loaded) honey for $8 and higher per pound. Sure makes you wonder.

Bee it as it maybee, Joerg

One thing that surprised me about honey pricing was a comment in one other forum were it was stated that someone (and probably many) sell retail, 'natural' honey (unfiltered, wax, bee-parts etc. loaded) honey for $8 and higher per pound. Sure makes you wonder.

The question is, how much do they sell?

Yes, there is a (small) market for honey straight out of the extractor that has not been strained. Usually it crystalizes quickly.

Are you surprised that people are selling honey retail for $8 a pound, or are you surprised there is a market for honey straight from the extractor?

The going retail price here in central Ohio for locally produced honey is $8-$9 a pound. 5 gallon buckets are selling for $185.

I sell some honey retail for $9 a pound, and I sell some wholesale in cases to stores at $5.50 per pound. (12 oz bears are $4.65 wholesale, and $7.00 retail. 32 oz bottles are $10 wholesale, and $16 retail. 1/2 gallon jars of honey are $24 wholesale, and $35 retail.) So far in 2015 I have sold about 3,000 pounds of honey, and I am averaging $5.81 per pound. (Total sales divided by pounds of honey sold = $5.81.)

I strain my honey to remove wax and bee legs and wings, etc. I warm my honey to 110 degrees F before bottling.

I talked with a big commercial fella to see if he would buy up some honey from me. He offered $1.60 per lb because he said Busy Bee wasn't buying much honey from producers here in Alberta and everyone had honey for sale. For that price I decided to put it in storage. People are still buying my 2lb jars (1-1/2lbs net.)for $15 ea. and I've sold a little over 240 jars from this years crop.

That's why I asked. I've heard things are slow. Just the same, US prices set the market for white honey.

So, I called the Mid-US Hotline 1-763-658-4193 just now but there is nothing new reported there and the Oct 18 report is still running. They mentioned $1.85- $2.10 US$ ($2.67 CAD) back then.

At this time, packers just buy enough to get by and wait on the Argentine crop. In spite of all the happy talk in the media, shipments of everything are down and the smart money says that a recession is ahead, or already here. Honey is a luxury good.

A lot of deals are made at the US meetings in early January, so we may know better around then.

The prices in Spain are falling as well, we import too much honey from Asia, and it destroys the prices. I am not again that, but it should be wirtten in the package www.aceitecsb.es

After updating the Boom/Bust thread, out of curiosity I called the Honey Hotline.

Last updated Oct. 15. 5 loads out of the Dakotas at $1.70 and one load out of Michigan at $2.10.
Canadian beekeepers report sitting on a large honey inventory.

Hmmm. Those prices are better than my friends have mentioned recently. I suspect the hotline may sometimes be biased by the fact that beekeepers report good prices and stay mum when taking less. Sorta like gambling. We hear about big winners, but much less from abject losers. At least they have a fairly recent update.