Book of Honey, Chapter 10

Honey Trade

Stefan Bogdanov Bee Product Science, www.bee-hexagon.net

World Honey Production

Today, honey is one of the last untreated natural foods. At present the annual world honey production is estimated at about 1.4 million tons (FAO, 2005) which is less than 1% of the total sugar production.
www.apiservices.com provides data until 2001, which has been compiled by www.apicultura.com/malka considering the available national production figures. Later date on different countries is provided the

Commodity Research Buro, 2005. Table 1: World production of honey after www.apiservices.com, downloaded in August 2009, data
in thousand tons

Continent
Africa North and Central America South America Asia Europe Oceania total

1992 117 216 87 328 182 29 958

1993 129 223 95 326 181 30 984

1994 131 195 97 354 291 38 1103

1995 138 183 105 365 319 27 1137

1996 142 174 100 362 278 35 1091

1997 140 189 109 402 281 36 1156

1998 139 218 109 401 291 31 1188

1999 141 201 133 435 293 29 1232

2000 144 208 141 457 286 29 1265

2001 145 205 131 465 288 29 1263

Table 2: Production of honey of major producing countries data after FAOSTAT, in thousand tons Countries & Years
China Argentina Turkey Ukraine USA Mexico Russian Federation India Ethiopia Iran Brazil Canada Spain Tanzania Kenya

2001
254 80 60 60 84 59 53 52 29 27 20 32 32 27 25

2002
267 83 75 51 78 59 49 52 40 28 24 37 36 27 22

2003
295 75 70 54 82 57 48 52 38 28 30 34 35 27 22

2004
298 80 74 58 83 57 53 52 41 28 32 34 37 27 22

2005
299 110 82 71 73 50 52 52 36 28 34 36 27 27 22

2006
305

2007
303 81 74 68 67 54 55 52 44 36 35 31 31 27 25 1

84 80 76 70 56 55 52 44 36 36 48 31 27 25

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Book of Honey, Chapter 10

Table 3: Honey relevant data in selected countries

Country China USA Argentina Turkey Mexico Ukraine India Spain Germany Canada France Greece Italy Australia Brazil Egypt Hungary Iran Israel Japan UK Min. Max. Prod t/year 254000 84000 80000 60000 59000 60000 52000 32000 35000 32000 30000 33000 24000 19000 20000 20000 24000 27000 5400 3000 3'000 3000 25600 Export t/year 103000 5000 88000 18000 31000 15000 3000 9500 13000 15000 3000 18000 20 11000 ni 5000 15000 5000 160 0 103000 Import t/year 79000 7500 105000 3000 8000 3000 10000 34 ni 100 210 40000 20000 0 105000 Cons. t/year 151000 185000 2000 42000 28000 45000 49000 30000 127000 20000 35000 18000 34000 8000 20000 15000 8900 22000 5450 43000 23000 5450 185000 Cons kg p cap 0.1 0.6 < 0.1 0.7 0.3 0.8 < 0.1 0.8 1.5 0.7 0.6 1.8 0.6 0.4 0.1 0.2 0.9 0.3 0.9 0.3 0.4 < 0.1 1.8 Beekeepers 600000 125000 18000 150000 45000 50000 150000 25000 89000 13000 84000 23500 75000 6300 300000 20000 16000 56400 480 7235 43900 480 600000 Col. p beek 12 24 106 29 44 60 4 72 10 38 16 54 16 107 8 100 38 65 177 31 6 6 177 Col. p. km2 0.7 0.3 0.7 5.5 1.0 5 0.2 3.6 2.4 0.05 2.5 9.7 4.0 0.1 0.3 0.2 6.5 2.2 4.1 0.6 1.0 0.05 9.7 25 15 8.5 18 40 66 22 26 20 39 15 10 40 14 64 15 11 8.5 66 harvest Kg/col 50 30 37

Production data 2001 from table 2, other data are from other sources indicated in www.apiservices.com , n.i. not indicated; - : zero,

Honey production, export and import

China is the leader in honey production and honey export, followed closely by Argentina, but they both have a very small consumption per capita with about 0.1 kg. Germany is the biggest honey importing country, importing 3 times more than it is producing. However Germany re-exports a part of the imported honey. Big honey importers are the USA and Japan. Japan is importing the 10 fold of the quantity it produces. Most West European countries and also the USA have a low degree of honey self sufficiency and have to import most of their honeys. In Europe from the mentioned countries only Greece and Hungary have a high self sufficiency and are net exporters of honey. The important honey export countries like Argentina, China, Mexico and Australia have all a high degree of self sufficiency, but their consumption per capita is very low.

Annual consumption per capita

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Book of Honey, Chapter 10

Developing countries as China, Argentina, India, Brazil and Egypt consume t 0.1 to 0.2 kg per capita. Rich developed countries consume generally higher amounts. However the per capita consumption does not follow the richness of the countries, but there are also cultural influences. In the European Union, the biggest honey consumer is Greece with 1.8 kg, followed by Germany with 1.5 kg, other EU countries like Italy, Spain, France and Hungary are in the intermediate range with 0.6-0.9 kg, while the UK is on the lowest end with 0.4 kg. Colonies per beekeepers This number gives some information on how professional the beekeeping is. Low numbers means that the majority of the beekeepers are hobbyists. In the European Union there are remarkable differences: In the UK, Italy and France they numbers vary from 8 to 16, while in Hungary, Greece and Spain they are considerably higher, varying from 38 to 72. The highest numbers are in Israel, meaning that the percentage of the more professional beekeepers is the hightest. It is astonishing that China, as the biggest honey exporter has mostly small beekeepers with an average of 12 colonies per beekeepers, while the second honey exporter Argentina has much more big scope beekeepers with 106 colonies per beekeeper. On the lowest end are India, UK and Brazil, on the highest: Israel, Argentina, Australia and Egypt. Bee density:

highest is in Greece, 9.7 colonies/km2, lowest, in Canada, 0.05 colonies/km2 . Countries with the high bee densities (Greece, Portugal, Hungary) have similar per colony yields as countries with the low bee density (Canada, USA, China). This means that there are enough honey sources even in countries with very high bee densities. On average, European countries have a higher bee density than overseas countries.

Honey yield per colony. The highest honey yields are reported in Israel with an average of 64 kg per colony. Israel has also the highest number of professional beekeepers. Under conditions of a warm climate during the whole year several honey crops are possible. Countries with high honey yields with 40 and more kg per colony are: China, Germany, and Canada. On the lowest end are India, UK and Egyp with 8.5 to 11 kg per colony.

In many countries most of the honey is sold directly from the beekeeper.

Bee Product Science, September 2009