Vietnamese honey production math problem

15497 Views 41 Replies 17 Participants Last post by Durandal, Feb 28, 2010

Roland

Discussion Starter · Feb 20, 2010 (Edited by Moderator)

I wonder if we can do the math and find out if is possible to produce the following mass of Honey from the area it is attributed to.

"The Tay Nguyen province of Dac Lac has become famous for its honey products, with produce exported to Japan, South Korea and Germany.

Last year, the province exported more than 6,000 tonnes of honey, representing more than 54.5 per cent of the country's total export volume. — "

Makes me wonder.....

Roland

1 - 20 of 42 Posts

irwin harlton

· #2 · Feb 21, 2010 (Edited by Moderator)

Re: Bulk honey prices and market outlook

Roland

http://www.wompom.ca/vietnam/vnprovinc708.htm

Tay Nguyen province or Tan Ninh province contains 4028 square miles,it produced 6000 tonnes of honey= 13.2M lbs, divide by 4028 square miles = 3277 lbs per square mile, 50 hives in this one square mile would average 65.5 lbs per colony, wondering if my math is correct

Article also says "Sugar is fed to bees in Viet Nam when there are few blossoms"

Jay Leno - “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.
Teach a man to create an artificial shortage of fish and he will eat steak.”

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Roland

Discussion Starter · #3 · Feb 21, 2010 (Edited by Moderator)

Re: Bulk honey prices and market outlook

Generally, we put 40 hives, every 4 miles. A four mile square is 16 square miles.
3277 lbs per square mile times 16 square miles is 52432 lbs per yard. Divide that by 40 hives and you get 1310.8 lbs per hive. I guess location IS the most important factor!!!!

Roland

Roland

Discussion Starter · #4 · Feb 21, 2010

Re: Bulk honey prices and market outlook

WHoaaaaa - that's 4028 square kilometers!!!!! Rough numbers, 62 mph is 100 kph, so .62 squared is .38?? That would be 3400 lbs a hive??? Some body correct me here, please...

Roland

Ian

· #5 · Feb 21, 2010

Re: Bulk honey prices and market outlook

too much math,

but,
see if your figuring works for north american production

Jonathan Hofer

· #6 · Feb 21, 2010 (Edited by Moderator)

Re: Bulk honey prices and market outlook

Just doing the math:

To have 4028 square miles, you need a piece of land that's about 64 miles long by 64 miles wide.

If (hypothetically) you put bees on the corners of every four miles square, you would be putting 16 yards on a straight line across the top, and 16 yards on a straight line four miles below your original line, and 16 yards four miles below the previous two lines and so on.

I figure that you could get up to 256 yards (16 x 16) into the 4028 square miles. If each of your yards has 40 hives, that's 10,240 hives in the 4028 square miles.

Now for the honey component: 6000 tonnes is about 1,320,000 pounds. This works out to about 130 pounds per hive.

I like doing math.

JH

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Roland

Discussion Starter · #7 · Feb 22, 2010 (Edited)

Re: Bulk honey prices and market outlook

I think it was square kilometers!!! Check the website.

Check my math with square kilometers.

6000 times 2000 lbs per ton is 12,000,000 ???(or 13,200,000)

1300 lbs a hive?

Roland

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Tom G. Laury

· #8 · Feb 22, 2010

Problem is you're not using an abacus.

RDY-B

· #9 · Feb 22, 2010 (Edited)

4028km=995,340 acer

4028km=1,555 sq miles
it would take 80,000 colonies @150lb to produce 12,000,000lb that much i know
so-with the sq miles=1,555 and number of colonies =80,000
it would take 51 colonies per sq mile @ 150lbs per to yield that amount RDY-B

hpm08161947

· #10 · Feb 22, 2010

This article from a whlie back might shed some light on this - maybe not:

http://www.cares.org.vn/webplus/attachments/201a4ff72354149a34e5b6d30818cac3-014.pdf

There is some info about the actual number of hives in the region. BTW Roland may well be an Abacus - his math look good to me.

Tom G. Laury

· #11 · Feb 22, 2010

Hey no doubt re: Roland. Just speaking metaphorically, so to speak.

Question is of course: Do the figures indicate transshipping or is VietNam pulling hard on the bootstraps?

Honey market analysts know fairly well how much production is real.

hpm08161947

· #12 · Feb 22, 2010

RDY-B said:
4028km=995,340 acer

it would take 80,000 colonies @150lb to produce 12,000,000lb that much i know-RDY-B

So that would take about 50 colonies/ Square mile. Approximately 1 colonie/12 acres.

Tom G. Laury

· #13 · Feb 22, 2010

On average, that is one HECK of a honeyflow.

hpm08161947

· #14 · Feb 22, 2010

Tom G. Laury said:
On average, that is one HECK of a honeyflow.

I have heard of some awfully large honey flows up in Canada (Saskatchewan probably) but they are not that large (as this Viet. honeyflow) - are they?

Countryboy

· #15 · Feb 22, 2010

Here is an article from 2008.
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/social/2008/03/775933/

There are about 700,000 beehives across the nation, of which 270,000 are from the Central Highlands(Tay Nguyen).

Viet Nam produces about 15,000 tonnes of honey per year, and more than half of that, about 8,000 tonnes, is produced in Tay Nguyen.

According to http://countrystudies.us/vietnam/33.htm
Within the southern portion of Vietnam is a plateau known as the Central Highlands (Tay Nguyen), approximately 51,800 square kilometers of rugged mountain peaks, extensive forests, and rich soil.

Tom G. Laury

· #16 · Feb 22, 2010

Averages

We all remember those corner hives with 6 deeps of honey. But to average what was it, 130 lbs @ 1 colony per 10 acres? That is phenomenal.

Countryboy

· #17 · Feb 22, 2010

On average, that is one HECK of a honeyflow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ormond_Aebi
However, a Mr. Rob Smith of Australia surely holds the world’s most astounding result for an apiary. According to Bill Winner, Beekeeper Services Manager, Capilano Honey Company, “We can confirm the average production of 346 kilograms (762 lbs) per hive from 460 hives.

It should also be noted that Vietnamese honey is dark.

The quality of honey has been strongly improved as new bee species have been introduced. However, to date, Viet Nam has only exported honey, while sweets or cakes have yet to be produced. "Vietnamese honey is dark, so it is not suitable for other products," Anh said.
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/biz/200911/Dak-Lak-to-export-6000-tonnes-of-honey-881568/

What?! The bee breed determines honey quality? And here I thought it was the flowers that determined honey color...

hpm08161947

· #18 · Feb 22, 2010

Countryboy said:
Here is an article from 2008.
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/social/2008/03/775933/

There are about 700,000 beehives across the nation, of which 270,000 are from the Central Highlands(Tay Nguyen).

Viet Nam produces about 15,000 tonnes of honey per year, and more than half of that, about 8,000 tonnes, is produced in Tay Nguyen.

forests, and rich soil.

WEll that is about 48 lbs per hive - at least that sounds possible. Of course I suppose one should factor in that acreage.

irwin harlton

· #19 · Feb 22, 2010

"Each honeybee farm raises about 200 to 250 colonies. The distance between farms
ranges from 800 meters to 1.000 meters.
Production activities at honey farms follows a cyclical pattern. The first of these"

from
http://www.cares.org.vn/webplus/atta...18cac3-014.pdf

I am thinking their price to the producer, in their currency would be our equivalent of say $2/lb... a incentive to produce and grow and also control quality , intensive beekeeping with a good reward
Wondering weather they have reached their full potential or is their a lot more production,growth to come.

G3farms

· #20 · Feb 22, 2010

well lets revisit the math for a minute.................

1 tonne = 2,204.6 pounds so
6,000 tonnes = 13,227,600 pounds of exported honey

Tay Nguyen is 4,028 square Km
1 square Km = 0.386102 square miles so
4,028 sq. Km = 1,555.21 sq. miles
1 sq mi = 640 acres so
1,555.21 sq. mi =995,334.4 acres

now we can figure pounds of honey per acre
13,227,600 pounds of honey / 995,334.4 acres = 13.3 pounds per acre

I think that is a doable figure myself...........anybody have any input on the above figures.

G3

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