Bulk honey prices and market outlook

[JohnK and Sheri]

Mark, your report is relevant, I wasn't talking to you. Anecdotal is about all we have, right? I just wanted to stress to anyone thinking the prices reported were very low, that we were talking bulk honey, not retail. We don't want anyone thinking these are retail prices.
Sheri

[John Smith]

Many beekeepers are both producers and traders, buying in as little as they need while others buy far more than they produce. It isn't necessarily easy to decide sometimes, whether those folk really want prices to go up or down, not even in their own minds perhaps.

Cheers,
JohnS

[irwin harlton]

"HA NOI — Viet Nam exported more than 14 million tonnes of honey last year, earning US$23 million, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.




The US recently became the biggest importer of Vietnamese honey, taking 80 per cent of exports. Vietnamese honey accounts for 17 per cent of the market."

http://www.apitrack.com/frame/index....2&news_id=9568

All ELA and amber , except the white stuff that comes transhipped from China......... is that $1642/MT or .75/lb??????, cheap ehh!

[irwin harlton]

John said "Many beekeepers are both producers and traders, buying in as little as they need while others buy far more than they produce. It isn't necessarily easy to decide sometimes, whether those folk really want prices to go up or down, not even in their own minds perhaps."
I would like to think anyone who has been it this buissness for any length of time would gladly like to see honey prices higher than what current markets are offering,especially from the producer end.

I think and sometimes contemplate as I look at honey prices on the store shelf of a number of things.

The premier Canadian product selling for $12.49 per Kg......close to $6/LB( 5.67 actually).
Not uncommon to have a vendors markup of 30-35 % involved in this final price, also a brokerage fee of 7-10 % and numerous other incidental costs, usually referred to as the middleman costs
As the price increases, so do these middleman costs, brokerage fees,and vendors markup.
Current prices to the producer are 1.50-1.60/lb REPRESENTING approx 30 % of the total cost to the end consumer.
"The average retail prices of honey have increased in the U.S. by 16% over the past 24 months without any corresponding decline in consumption, which is estimated to be ....."
from Mr Ron Phipps, page 1038 ABJ , NOV 2009.

So are we at the point where "sticker price shock" is cutting sales and leveled off demand from consumers, or is the economy so bad that the luxury food HONEY is falling in sales?
I think not,I think it is the packers who are, were addicted to the lower priced foreign honey.The current color of honey on the U.S. Wall Mart shelf grows darker every month.
There used be a time when packers took a lot of pride in how light colored and mild flavored their pack was , seems to have been replaced by the desire to make money at any cost.
"Although nominal honey prices have trended upwards over time ,real prices(net of inflation) have trended downwards,with both series exhibiting substantial year to year variation.Historically high recent nominal prices are considerably lower, in real terms, than historical real prices" FROM ARTICLE "U.S. Honey Markets,ABJ, page1128, December 2009
There is also a graph on the same page showing prices 1999 to 2007.......... the price hasn't gone up much from 2007, if any,................ long overdue I say for a big bump up

Choose a job you like and you will never have to work a day in your life.
Confucius quote

William Black is author of "The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One".

[sqkcrk]

irwin, it seemed for a while there that people were buying honey, regardless of the economy, because they have been buying it. I don't know if that is true or not, just a feeling. But the difference between sales in '08 and '09 rose only by 2%, so maybe honey sales have dropped for me. I'm not sure.

January sales in 2010 were 1000 lbs higher than in 2009. I think that that may reflect the fact that there isn't as much honey out there now as there was last year. I have picked up a couple of new customers because their supplier didn't keep up the accounts.

I raised my prices last Sept. I think I need to raise them again.

I know this isn't on the large scale, but I hope it is the sort of discussion that you are looking for.

[Eaglerock]

I raised my prices last Sept. I think I need to raise them again.

I know this isn't on the large scale, but I hope it is the sort of discussion that you are looking for.

So sre you selling bulk? Or- are you just selling local in jars?

[irwin harlton]

HONEY MARKET REPORT
March 1, 2010
Ron Phipps




Given the current global economic recession and high rates of unemployment and underemployment, there are obvious and real restraints on how high honey prices can rise.

" Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets . So love the people who treat you right , and forget about the ones who don't and believe that everything happens for a reason . If you get a chance , take it . If it changes your life , let it . Nobody said that it would be easy , they just promised it would be worth it ." ?

[jean-marc]

I agree with Mr. Phipps. However some of the so called honey coming from China , you know the stuff that apparently gets cut with rice syrup are preventing honey from attaining that level. Evidently the market will dictate that figure.

Jean-Marc

[irwin harlton]

HONEY MARKET REPORT
March 1, 2010
Ron Phipps

"Argentine beekeepers with poor or bad crops are thinking the only path for their survival is with an irrationally high surge in prices. The beekeepers with normal crops are cognizant of the overall situation and are selling honey in only small quantities to cover immediate costs while “waiting for higher prices.” Of course, they may mis-calculate and wait too long, given the fact that the abundant rains and snows covering California and the Midwest could portend a bigger North American honey crop in 2010. The wild card variable of circumvented and cheap Chinese honey still looms large over the American honey market. In any case, Argentine honey prices are likely to remain firm. In January, about 2,500MT were exported with an additional 3,500-5,000MT are expected to be exported in February. From March through June it is expected that Argentina will be able to export about 5,000MT monthly. The overall global economic difficulties may, in the final analysis, restrain the Argentine beekeepers’ ambition to achieve the historically high prices that they seek."





http://www.apitrack.com/noticias/aaa...el_es_open.htm

From looking at the above site I would say prices are definitely on the upward move in Argentina, no mention of quantity, volume there.
Volume of exports for 2010 should be found here http://www.senasa.gov.ar/indexhtml.php

[irwin harlton]

http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B9ed...ZmNkY2Yx&hl=en


click on link to see documents, Argentina honey exports 2009
Argentina honey exports 2010
Ron Phipps Honey Report March3, 2010

[sqkcrk]

So sre you selling bulk? Or- are you just selling local in jars?

Primarily doing direct store deliveries of jars and 5 gallon totes.

[John Smith]

Despite and regardless of the whispers and secrets of commercially sensitive information, here’s an official publication quotation from “Australia’s Honeybee News” January – February Edition, 2010.

In the page devoted to ‘Presidents Report’ is this excerpt:

“Prices paid by some packers have dropped mainly driven by their inability to pay; other packers are maintaining or slightly lifting prices to secure stocks they require.”

Obviously, Australia is headed into their winter marketing conditions, so some urgency exists with putting in stock. However, unless credit is available from our banking tree, it will be very difficult for packers to find capital to buy in their stock at elevated prices.

Happy Marketing,

JohnS

[Beeslave]

A packer called me wanting honey. He is paying $1.38-$1.40 for Amber, $1.48 for Extra Light Amber, and $1.55 for White.

[irwin harlton]

Vietnam is suffering from the worst drought in over a century

http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...969630,00.html

Honey prices seem to be moving up, Canadian broker offering 1.60 picked up in beekeepers yard-- source Manitoba Beekeepers convention. We now are backup to the price we had offered last fall
Current USA prices 1.55-- source Mid US Honey Hot Line , recording march 4th

Retail, on the shelf prices had a zero increase in 2009, according to this study http://www.washingtonwinemaker.com/b...-flat-in-2009/

From Kim Flottum at http://www.thedailygreen.com/environ...#ixzz0hVgbYAxL

"The average price of honey( BULK) increased a couple cents per pound - 2 percent over last year’s prices, from $1.421 to $1.445 per pound. Retail prices, however, were even higher, rising from $2.247 to $2.784 per pound, or just over 50 cents a pound. That’s a hike by any standard." These prices are I believe are from the National Honey Board site

[irwin harlton]

looks to me like that the trans-shipped Chinese honey market is being well supplied in 2010

http://www.honey.com/nhb/industry/industry-statistics/

click USDA National Honey Report scroll down to imports


white honey


Indonesia 537,100 kg

[Beeslave]

I received a call from another packer wanting honey. I sent him sample of the 3 colors I have left. 1/3 of the honey is ELA, another 1/3 is Dark ELA/Light LA, and the last 1/3 is LA made mostly from Golden Rod and Frost aster with some summer honey mixed in it. After viewing and tasting my samples he offered $1.50 per lb. across the board for the whole lot. I jokingly asked him if I waited 2 wks would he offer me $1.60. He seriously responded back saying it was very possible. It depended on what was available from Canada yet.

[irwin harlton]

Canadian broker is currently paying 1.60 for white,in beekeepers yard........so add freight,duty and brokers fees and you have what packer is paying
The scarcity of the product white honey , the price fixing determined by the financial deflationary recession,the market depression by unbelievable cheap Chinese trans-shipped syrup,......lots of variables pushing on the price. Raising the price, up till now has been like pushing on a string.A large number of producers have sold at or below current prices, so some producers must have assumed that is, was a good price or they couldn't see it getting better. Prices have risen in Argentina and could go a lot higher
Barring a complete USA economic crash I see a parabolic curve in prices for honey,bombing of Iran would probably help push the price up. http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/w...iran-1.1013151

[irwin harlton]

And adding to the world wide shortage of honey we have this; http://www.apitrack.com/frame/index....&language_id=2

A little spill on the expressway,.......probably Chinese anyways

Argentina keepers are netting 2.23 USD per Kg,from buyers ,brokers, this is up from previous years and looks like to me they net more from USA sales then from European sales in Euro's, the euro being weaker and that honey is traded in US dollars world wide.USA is the largest buyer. http://www.apitrack.com/frame/index....2&news_id=9872

From the Honey Hot Line , maybe that packer paying 1.62, with payment delayed two months can buy his groceries and gas like that, but I doubt it, anyone looking or asking for deals like this ain't living in the real world.Honey to money= cash or 30 days.
The packer logic being that in 2 months , honey is going to worth lot more than 1.62


"Money, when considered as the fruit of many years' industry, as the reward of labor, sweat and toil, as the widow's dowry and children's portion, and as the means of procuring the necessaries and alleviating the afflictions of life, and making old age a scene of rest, has something in it sacred that is not to be sported with, or trusted to the airy bubble of paper currency."
Thomas Paine

[Mtn. Bee]

I sell my honey retail only and am aware that this post is not intended to relate to that market so I won't comment about the retail end of things.
The comment I wanted to make was to hold your ground on your honey prices as purchasers are willing to pay if they want the product.
Also remember all that hard work and time and money you have invested into your operation months before the extracting season even starts??!!
My point is don't cut yourself and your product short, lets keep the market where it should be, in our favor!
Ok, I will shut up now!

p.s. Just my 2 cents!

[irwin harlton]

Argentina price for white jumps up..............hoping this is the take off for world wide higher prices


http://www.apinews.com/en/argentina-honey-price



There is no such thing as a bad debt. There are only bailouts-in-waiting.