Subject: USA WORLD HONEY MARKET

From: [email-masked] (Andy Nachbaur)
Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 22:24:00 GMT

___  ____ ___ _   _ ___ ___  _   _
 USA IS THE      / _ \|  _ \_ _| \ | |_ _/ _ \| \ | |
   WORLD        | | | | |_) | ||  \| || | | | |  \| |
 HONEY MARKET   | |_| |  __/| || |\  || | |_| | |\  |
                 \___/|_|  |___|_| \_|___\___/|_| \_|

    There have the last 40 years been some acknowledged real
changes in the Honey Business other then the grater effort it
now takes to keep a hive of bees alive from one season to the next.

   I marketed my first crop of honey at 10 cents per lb no one would
have dreamed that some 40+ years later others would be doing the same
for part of their crop at $1.00 per lb. In the 1950's the top grades of
honey here such as white sage or orange would bring 15 cents and the
retail price for one pound honey in glass would escalate to 35 cents
because of the costs of containers, freight, and profit margins. At
the same time the bulk of the honey crop in California was packed in
five pounds tins and sold at retail for $1.00 in the west and north
west.

   When the total production of honey exceeded the amount the market
could handle honey did not sell and many beekeepers turned to the world
market. I even shipped a few drums to Cuba for which I received 7 3/4
cents, thank God the lowest price I ever had to settle for, others did
not do as good, and in earlier times prices would sometimes drop so low
that honey shipped on consignment to the east cost would not pay the
freight.

Today, and for many years now we in the USA have been the world market
for all honey in surplus for the rest of the world. I believe this
was in no small part due to the USDA support price at least in the later
years. The price fixed by the government made them into the largest
honey handler in the history of the world, cost taxpayers hundreds of
millions and became the price floor for world honey production, and
sadly also the ceiling. It's all history now, lasted longer then it
should have but today for the first time we in the USA are seeing and
benefiting from the effects of a open market for honey, on our end at
least. Remembering 'open is not the same as fair, as we all witnessed
when China got caught with their fingers in the honey pot..They did
nothing that they and others had not been doing for years, and some
still may be doing, but because of good political timing they became
the turkey and paid the price of being caught.

  And today the market is close to a balance between production
and consumption in the world because believe it or not disposable
income has been increasing in what we still think of as third world
countries. Surely abject poor people still exist, one would have to be
blind not to see that, but there are grater numbers of people in the
middle or upper class in much of the world even if we do not have that
feeling here in the US as our spending power has been reduced for the
middle class by bloated government spending only little reduced with
all the rhetoric of the babbling heads and politicos.

   Well in the first two months of this year 1996, over 30 million
pounds of honey was shipped from off shore including from our logical
NAFTA trading partners, Mexico and Canada. Half of this honey was table
honey and the balance could be used for industrial or table. What is
really eye catching about this other then the amounts, including some
of the high dollar amounts, is the countries of the world other then
Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, and China that are cashing in on
the gold rush being paid out for honey in the USA. Amounts are truly
small but added together are significant and is a trend developing?

Some of the exporting countries are Switzerland, India, Chile, United
Kingdom, Italy, Belize, Dominican Rep., Uruguay, Czech Rep., France,
and Germany. Granted they are small but they exceed the amounts of Honey
we in the US are exporting for consumption to world markets mostly
packed in retail containers.

What does it all mean, well it is interesting history if nothing else,
but if anything it means that we are in a time of change which brings
wealth to some and uncertainty to others. One must accept that the
market for honey is what you get for it at the time of sale, and the
history of the market is what you read about prior to the sale, and
in a free market driven by supply and demand you may not always be able
to reach the historical highs at your time of sale. At the same time
you can not know enough of the history of the market at time of sale
and most large producers need more current information. If you are one
of these you should check out the American Beekeeping Federation FAX
hot line. And if you do pay the amount of dues required, $150., and the
$70 additional costs, please let them know how much faster it would bee
to receive it via e-mail. The faxline is not a price reporting service,
as I understand it, but attempts to match sellers with buyers and the
price is worked out between them. If you need more information call
the ABF at (912)427-8447.
                             ttul, OLd Drone

(c) Permission is granted to freely copy this document
in any form, or to print for any use.

(w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk.
---
 þ QMPro 1.53 þ All bees are looking for bargains in nature's supermarket