Honey price

[Markthebuilder]

Apparently the what price honey comes up every year . I am certainly no expert etc etc and can only share an opinion

I suggest there are 3 principle markets. Some may sell to more than bracket but I wouldn’t expect them to sell to a shop or for the shop to sell at bulk price.

1) bulk market …. I imagine there will be a National price for this. And it is what it is . If your not happy with the price find another buyer or go to options 2/3

2) sell from the gate. This price should be what your honey is worth bottled and labelled in a jar and should not be influenced as such by 1 above. Or dare I say a committee based on what has always been charged etc etc.

my aim of getting involved with this thread was to encourage discussion around this and possibly what the best size jar to sell honey in is.

3) market stalls /fair ground stalls. Shops …take price 2 and add a margin or buy bulk and then bottle label etc etc and add your margin.

there are any amount of variations on the above , and Everyone is free to do what they are comfortable with

I personally cant decided if 8 oz from gate looks small at £5 ( they often go 2 at a time) or whether 12 oz at £7.50 looks better I’m selling both with an honesty box but no one has bought any 1lb jars at £9.00… go figure

 

[Markthebuilder]

Knowing a bit about this you have two things to consider............without giving too much away about what I know and how come I know it.......there are several margins involved there...the price is calculated to cover these AND also huge marketing, packing and labour costs. The volumes traded are also tiny.

I know what the actual beekeeper gets...and the headline price bears little relationship to the amount the primary producer is paid.

You can also put any price you like on a product you either do not have or only have a few of. Somebody will buy it and you create the illusion of a high market rate. Good luck if you get it.....but these prices truly are a niche within a niche within niche.

fully appreciate that examples I have given have marketing costs etc and that bulk buyers are not in a position to pay anything like the proposed from the gate price
But for those of us with sub 10 hives selling at the gate or at a school Xmas fair I think the market can stand £7.50 for a 12oz jar

 

[Gower Beekeeper]

Yes, well he'll buy in from anyone and sell it on as his own.
As for Gower honey, did you know they have a Gower Honey Cooperative? I used to be a member (the boundary of the lordship of Gower is the river below Brynmair) I know they had a few outlets in Swansea market and a few other places they supplied.

The Cooperative is still going strong with 12 members. Just received a group order for Ambrosia syrup.

 

[pargyle]

Have you caught up with the latest campaign from Marks & Spencer promoting their Single Farm Honey ?

https://corporate.marksandspencer.c...its-pioneering-select-farms-quality-standards
https://www.marksandspencer.com/c/food-to-order/not-just-any-food/food-news/the-bee-blog
250gm £4.50 ....

 

[Erichalfbee]

I think that’s rather a good bee blog.
I’d buy it!

 

[pargyle]

I think that’s rather a good bee blog.
I’d buy it!

Clever marketing ... trying to set themselves away from the rest ....

 

[victor meldrew]

Clever marketing ... trying to set themselves away from the rest ....

The footprint of a hive is approximately 27 square miles .
the hives he is waxing lyrical about are all in one apiary !
pure hyperbole!

 

[Murox]

The footprint of a hive is approximately 27 square miles .
the hives he is waxing lyrical about are all in one apiary !
pure hyperbole!

The thing is do the public at large realise its exaggerated and that the claims are not meant to be taken literally?

 

[Poly Hive]

Thirteen years ago I was in a very touristy village in Wales where there was a honey shop belonging to a BF. A bog standard pound jar of blossom was £14-95.

If you won't ask you won't get.

PH

 

[pargyle]

Thirteen years ago I was in a very touristy village in Wales where there was a honey shop belonging to a BF. A bog standard pound jar of blossom was £14-95.

If you won't ask you won't get.

PH

Put the name of a touristy village where there is tourist passing trade and anything will sell... often at inflated prices - people are prepared to pay more for souvernirs and mementos and indeed gifts for friends or family ... Go to Gretna Green on the Scottish border or Cockington Forge in Torquay and look at the exhorbitant prices commodities with their name on sell for,

But .. whilst I agree that the price of honey should be what the market will bear - what the market will bear in one particular location may be far divorced from what it will bear in another. Get it wrong and under price it and you will sell out ... price it too high and it won't sell (well, perhaps to the gullible or those who appreciate the premium product it is). The average hobbyist wants to sell at a price and a rate of sale that keeps the stock available for regular customers - lose one sale because you no longer have stock and you could lose many more from that punter. Setting that price - well, that's the hard bit in any marketing proposition .... I've had enough commercial marketing experience over my long career in sales and marketing (high value, aspirational products for some of the time) to know that there is fine line between success and failure ... "Don't sell the sausage - sell the sizzle" I used to tell my sales people - price is not usually the prime motivation for premium product sales - but the difference in sales when a product is priced at £4.95 rather than £5.10 .... is remarkable. Somewhere in the product price there is a glass ceiling and finding the sweet spot just below that glass ceiling is what we should all be doing.

Look at the supermarket shelves or the TV Infomercials and take notice of how they price premium products .... Marks and Spencer have boxed clever with their 'single farm' honey ... I suspect they did a lot of focus group tests before they set their jar size and price point ... and they have a good story to tell.

 

[Apiarisnt]

 

[thorn]

I do the same as M&S. I've five apiaries, and jar the honey from each separately, giving each apiary its own label. My neighbours clamour for the honey from the hives in my garden, the allotment holders for that from the allotment. The honey from the apiaries without a USP goes more slowly.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I do the same as M&S. I've five apiaries, and jar the honey from each separately, giving each apiary its own label. My neighbours clamour for the honey from the hives in my garden, the allotment holders for that from the allotment. The honey from the apiaries without a USP goes more slowly.

Great idea
And that’s why this “it’s not just honey, it’s M&S honey” thing works.

 

[ics19]

Deluxe Manuka Honey

Whatever next - Deluxe Raw Honey?

 

[enrico]

I agree about marketing. I had no brand name in Shropshire to start with, then I named it Offa's country honey and that was it. Sold out! I sold it at the Offa's dyke information centre and it was a perfect present.

 

[Skinfaxi]

This will be my second year selling honey. My jars are 400g because I can get 400g jars very cheap.

last spring when I got my first harvest of 2 buckets, I was overwhelmed by how much honey I had. I thought I would seriously struggle to sell it. So was happy to get rid of the stuff at £4/5 per jar. I sold some on social media and listed for £5 per jar. For fear of saying something that could be misconstrued, I will simply say a certain ilk of customer arrived at my doorstep to collect £5 jars.

However, when I got my summer harvest I upped the price to £7 per jar. Put it out on social media again. And none of the £5 per jar customers came back. However a new ilk of people showed up at my doorstep happy to pay £7. I honestly blieve many of my new customers overlooked my honey in the spring because it was too cheap for them.

The other unexpected thing, it seems the more a customer is willing to pay for a single jar, the more jars they want to buy at a time.

I am selling £7/8 this year and £12 for chunk. and my measly spring harvest sold in no time.

If you are scared of loosing customers if you put your price up, dont be. You will loose some, but they are not the customers you want. They will only introduce you to other customers that want cheap honey. Once you have put your prices up and found new customers willing to pay a higher price. they will start intruding you to more like minded customers.

I live in a city so have a lot of potential customers on my doorstep. But in spite of that most my honey goes out by post to all over the place. And they pay postage on-top.

I regret selling my first lot of honey for £4/5 per jar. And honestly, I understand the mentality of the fear of being stuck with honey you cannot sell.

But seriously (it is of my humble opinion) that anyone selling for less than £7 per lb for jarred honey is letting down them self and the side. You need to sort your act out, put up your price, and get what you truly deserve for your product. And no bulk discounts for jarred honey, even for shops.

I have learnt through blood, sweat, and stings what it takes to reap the amber goodness. And after all that effort so many of us undervalue our product. You need to put a proportional amount of effort into selling honey as you do making the stuff. In this modern world you need to be willing to use modern tools and make the most of every possible sales avenue.

Get on the tinterweb, be willing to post, Drop it into conversation anytime you are in the company of affluent people "that you keep bees". If they want honey they will ask. Both my GP and dentist are customers for example.

I am pulling supers this weekend so will have my numbers soon. But I do not think I will have enough honey for all my customers. So if some of you £5/lb relics out there wont put your prices up for fear of not selling, then PM me in a few weeks and maybe we can come up with a way of getting your honey to my less price sensitive customers.

I know I have rambled enough already, but look at the prices of other things, like so called "premium" honey, even in Asda. Look at the price people are willing to pay for Manuka, look at the price people pay for a couple of coffees or a cocktail. I think its £20 for a pack of cigs these days. Premium olive oil. Whats it cost to park a car in a city center.. If you sell a jarred lb of honey for less than a Big Mac meal (a highly utilized price index) you actually need a slap and some assistance selling your honey.

I think I am still underselling my honey. I think quality honey direct from the keeper is worth £10+/ lb jarred. Like many other categories of producer, we have been mentally conditioned by years of abundant low-price, low-quality and high-availability food. Need I remind anyone, in its unadulterated pure form, the amber goodness has a slew of known health benefits, it just tastes so good. And hardcore honey munches are serious addicts, once its worked its way into their recopies replacing sugar, or found its way onto that morning slice of toast, they need an ongoing supply.

So to anyone under-selling their honey, I beg of you to reconsider. Get what you truly deserve for your skills, efforts and investment. And if people want cheap honey, point them in the direction of Asda smart price syrup.

The problem you have is amatures and farmers selling the same product.
One needs to pay the bills the amature most likely well off anyway.

Price discovery is found in supply and demand
Like the bank of england printing pounds backed by nothing becoming worth less.

 

[Skinfaxi]

Also remember production prices are going up, high inflation and more unknown challenges ahead.

 

[madasafish]

I have mentally written in 10% for 2022 inflation (see gas prices which may double from here)#
So going to raise jar prices by 10% or so rounded to nearest £1.

# ignore BOE forecasts as they are politically driven and hence rubbish

 

[GuyNir]

# ignore BOE forecasts as they are politically driven and hence rubbish

Absolutely true. 4 y/o kids know better.

 

[bobba]

The problem you have is amatures and farmers selling the same product.
One needs to pay the bills the amature most likely well off anyway.

Price discovery is found in supply and demand
Like the bank of england printing pounds backed by nothing becoming worth less.

I think you hit the nail on the head with your point about many amature keepers being well off.

And they may indeed contribute a little to the devaluation of honey. But at least they sell good quality honey.

I still think its the supermarket syrup that is the real problem, not only are they devaluing honey, but worse they damage how people perceive the product.