[dddillon]

Just saw this at the local Costco. How is this possible?

Does anyone know the actual source of this honey? It say's it is 100% product of U.S. honey.
I'm wondering if this is honey from hives that were fed sugar syrup?

Anyone have any factual information on this?

 

[jim lyon]

Bulk honey prices for darker honey such as this are in the $1.50-1.70 range so I suppose it pencils out....barely. https://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/fvmhoney.pdf

 

[DPBsbees]

Bulk honey prices for darker honey such as this are in the $1.50-1.70 range so I suppose it pencils out....barely. https://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/fvmhoney.pdf

Jim, Can commercial guys make a living at these prices? Dan

 

[jim lyon]

Jim, Can commercial guys make a living at these prices? Dan

A simple question with a complicated answer. Everyone has their own unique costs and while production on a given year is obviously a big variable in the equation, there are lots of ways to derive income from bees other than just honey production. Pollination services (particularly almonds) now account for as much income as does honey production and yes its possible to do both unless you are pollinating late blooming summer crops. Also sales of nucs, queens and bulk bees can generate income without hurting honey production too much particularly if you are migratory. With all that said, I typically figure my per hive expenses in the $100 per hive range +/- which includes paying myself a fair wage. Do the math.

 

[wildbranch2007]

If in doubt do as a person I know did, have it analyzed. he was competing for the local market, turns out he had the only local honey, every one else was buying it in. My guess is some lawyer already had it analyzed and no law suit this year.

 

[DPBsbees]

Thanks, Jim for a thorough answer. As the president of a county club I want to make sure that the members have a feel for what it is like to make a living in this business. People see those prices and are thinking " Why do this if that's all it's worth?". At my level it clearly wouldn't work if I needed to make a living at it. Dan

 

[jim lyon]

Thanks, Jim for a thorough answer. As the president of a county club I want to make sure that the members have a feel for what it is like to make a living in this business. People see those prices and are thinking " Why do this if that's all it's worth?". At my level it clearly wouldn't work if I needed to make a living at it. Dan

I know it's frustrating to see prices like this but don't feel like you need to directly compete with them. If you do a good job of marketing your honey and charge what you feel is appropriate I'm betting you will be surprised at how many folks are willing to pay a lot more to get good honey from a local beekeeper. There is nothing quite like the uniqueness of knowing the honey was raised from the flowers that grow in their locality.

 

[e-spice]

My feelings on this is that people that sell honey (if this is real) this cheaply do a disservice to themselves and everyone else that produces honey. I don't see a way anyone could make any money selling for $3 per pound. It makes it tougher on all of us that ask a fair price for honey.

 

[Mike Gillmore]

I wonder what it tastes like. Might be a partial answer to the question.

 

[wildbranch2007]

I wonder what it tastes like. Might be a partial answer to the question.

here is an unbiased review of the honey, I watched most of it, not much information

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24ygkjpyfzo

only other information available

It appears that Costco has replaced its Kirkland Signature organic honey with the Kirkland Signature Organic Raw Honey. Raw honey supposedly means that the honey has not been pasteurized or filtered. Unfortunately, it's not stated on the packaging whether that is true or not.Apr 5, 2017

 

[rwlaw]

You can bet that Costco secured a multi ton contract with a broker for last years honey and they’re going to take advantage of it. It’s a hook to get people to buy a brand and keep on doing it. I saw a gallon of milk at a big box outfit for 1.75 a gallon (not on sale), the next time I was thru there it was going for market prices.

 

[elmer_fud]

I saw Colorado raw unfiltered honey at my local Costco this week. I should have looked at it closer, but I am sort of wondering if it came from LR rice since they are a big honey producer located in the area. I also already have enough honey that I didn't have any reason to buy more local honey.

 

[kaizen]

I see it as i'm loading up sugar for my bees. i swear they put it right there to mock me

 

[hagane]

I've been studying business and financial markets for a long time. If there's one thing I know is that people cheat a lot for money.

Deutsche Bank for example. Its downfall right now is a result of its scandalous practice of trying to have its foreign investment branch give bad loans to dictator despot developing countries. (And its saying its fall is from derivatives). They were partly doing this because they could milk the US foreign aid on the sly from the dictator's side. And then they weren't prepared when the US started realizing we were just getting cheated by the foreign aid not really meaning people liked us or would follow through with their reasons for receiving it. During the mortgage meltdown they found out the CEOs for bank bailouts were being paid MORE than for what the bailout was worth....

Where I'm going with this is I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this is a scheme for masking imported product as domestic product. We already know that people do stuff like this. Sometimes they can claim its legal by saying 'the engine was assembled in country' even if the parts themselves were not. But its still a scheme.

Having the honey analyzed is a great idea. I bet you could have some veterinary lab somewhere do it.

And as for where it's coming from... its very possible that a lot of that honey could be coming from places like Slovakia, Check Republic, Ukraine, Romania, and Poland. All of those are countries with people that have strong beekeeping traditions and histories. A lot of people are interested in bees from those areas now still also. And their financial markets are down a few grades from us, so it would be possible to explain where the thin gain is coming from. (There's even beekeeping channels on Youtube now for Vietnamese beekeepers...which totally surprised me. One of them did a video recently where he's got a hive with 5 live queens in the same hive.)

And do you think mathwise that honey could really come from in the US just with this year the whole US agriculture scheme being a total mess? There's just a 'much reduced' probability that the fields producing nectar flow aren't affected enough to be strong for such a low price. But I could be wrong?

To be fair, my opinion is mostly as a math and business person and not as a real beek. But you do see schemes like this all the time. Like Costco has been under fire for changing a lot of stuff recently in ways that isn't entirely agreed upon by their customers. Like for no reason at all they changed their hot dog stand recipe, which had no problems and was popular with kosher beef and now isn't so kosher. And they also know that a lot other retailers are going down in flames right now.

The list of store closures this year in the US is three times higher than it was last year.

Hope that helps in figuring it out...there are a lot of places this could come from.

 

[herb]

Not sure but after extracting my honey, cleaning up. thinking up labels, buying some, then ink for the **** printer I cannot see how honey production can ever be profitable.

Kirkland signature clover honey is at the same price. 3.00 a lb.

:ws:

 

[jimbo3]

17.29 for delivery to my area for 5 pounds, so about 3.50 a pound. Sounds like a great deal until I read "Product of Argentina and US". What's that mean? How much Argentina:US ratio? Can it be 99% foreign honey with just a little US honey mixed in to qualify?

I have yet to sell any honey as last year was my first harvest and didn't sell any, so I am far from knowing anything. I'm planning on selling my honey this year at $10 a pound, so 15 bucks for a pint mason jar. I think that's reasonable, and I guess I'll soon find out.


edit: sorry, I didn't quote. this is re: the kirkland honey

 

[edzkoda]

Not sure but after extracting my honey, cleaning up. thinking up labels, buying some, then ink for the **** printer I cannot see how honey production can ever be profitable.

Kirkland signature clover honey is at the same price. 3.00 a lb.

:ws:

Can't say anything. We don't have anything from Argentina to mix with our honey

 

[mathesonequip]

a lot of products are trans-shipped. product of argentina blend sounds better than product of china thru vietnam. product of usa sounds even better. some one is fraudulent or is shutting their eyes to make a few cents. it is cheap to print the word raw. pure sounds better than rice syrup blend, or cheaper than corn syrup blend, if corn syrup is $1 cheaper a ton this week. the food and drug administration is a total joke. it would appear that costco is selling whatever this is at a profit with no one to stop them. i would almost bet that some "beekeeper" is relabeling this stuff and selling it as "organic" in a farmers market.

 

[e-spice]

i would almost bet that some "beekeeper" is relabeling this stuff and selling it as "organic" in a farmers market.

Probably so. I'm always telling people there are no honey police.

It's tough enough to get a semi-reasonable price for honey produced honestly. CostCo and others are making it even harder.

 

[hagane]

Re: the part of US honey mixed with Argentinian honey;

Once again, very likely a product of slick lawyer mongering in import and trade laws.

Its based of the concept of making the engine parts in China, or Taiwan, and then doing final assembly in Japan. (But people always try to carry the ball a bit further all the time.)

In this case,...its probably very low percentage of the 'parts' made here, because greed is something you can always count on in this country unfortunately. Business people, lawyers, and others will always try a scheme like this if you let them. They may try to make people think that half or more of the honey is made here, but given how people lie, cheat, and steal, its very likely that only the box and labels are made here.

(And another problem with this type of scheme is that they don't intend to leave it there. They will go for broke after people accept the idea of foreign honey and eventually leave out the domestic in country suppliers and only go foreign. That's how it always goes and that's how things started out with China. And you can see in the news all the time now, how that's going for us.)

If I were you guys, I'd have a vested organized effort to make sure honey production in the US stays domestic. The minute you let the foreign market in, it will be just like what's happened to manufacturing in this country. (No offense but this is factual.) I found out at Home Depot that we still make PVC pipes and lumber in the U.S., but that's about the only thing still made in the US except for military industry vehicles, jets, and small arms. (Other than that there isn't much going on in manufacturing anymore. And what does exist here and when they say some of the jobs are coming back, they plan to have those manned by robots and not people.)

You can't compete with foreign industry without some kind of fence into play if you want to be able to support yourselves as beekeepers. I'd get organized and try to keep beekeeping in country. This hobby depends on the honey market to support the costs of the hives, and supplies it needs.

Argentina also took huge hits to its financial markets over the last 5 to 10 years. So their wage and dollar conversion rate is extremely attractive to people with lots of money that like to exploit that sort of thing. And unfortunately these countries love bees and agriculture as much as we do, and they are pretty educated. (I see beekeeping videos on Youtube all the time in Spanish and Vietnamese, and even Romanian.)

(I'm not being negative here, just proactive.)