The other issue is our use of hives which are generally only used in the UK.
Finman can buy his hives, which I assume are Langstroths, anywhere in the EU. The Finnish suppliers know this and therefore have to remain competitive.
Not really. Langstroth is probably most popular but the Dadant Blatt is also widely used.
Then you have local variants in almost every country....often called the National.......but their own National, not the same as ours....and there is Voirnot, Layens, Lav Normal........and so it goes on. BUT, in each country there is generally one dominant international standard hive and one dominant domestic type. Stock holding easy.
The issue of scale, and the density of larger beekeepers helps, but also the fact most Europeans are very content to shop around and buy from non domestic suppliers. In the UK fora I have been slated for advocating this as if it almost makes you some kind of traitor. Competition for both suppliers and clients keeps things sharp. However, we are the architects of our own demise in the UK, and possibly Ireland too. The way we want things COSTS us big time.
There are so many hive patterns in use here that it is almost considered funny elsewhere....with some justification.......and the average UK beekeeper has six hives, strip out the big boys and that drops to four. In other countries its generally a good bit more, so orders are larger and economies of scale come into play. There are also beekeeping co-operatives that bulk source for their members, but that would struggle to work here due to disagreement on the spec of what to buy. 10 beekeepers in a room and the minimum number of opinions is 11.
Until the UK smaller scale beekeepers stop wanting their own pet hive type and cannot settle on at most say 3 types, than it will be a permanent situation. Its the high cost of order servicing and stock preparation and holding that costs the big money. I can pretty well guarantee that UK suppliers are not making big money.
