Price of honey, (again!)

[For want of a better word]

We haven't all got a new Toyota hilux included in our beekeeping equipment.

Then you are only playing at it



( I have an ancient rusty but trusty Vitara and still run at an enormous loss!!!)

Yeghes da

 

[Webby]

Then you are only playing at it



( I have an ancient rusty but trusty Vitara and still run at an enormous loss!!!)

Yeghes da

I am playing. Also no vehicle involved with bees at home.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The people that I sell my largest amount to phoned yesterday, it went you are to expensive we will pay 25 pence less per jar for the jars we received last week. I have not altered the price for two years just hope they pay at thirty days or will go to court as a contract is in place for the agreed amount. And they have already sold half of them.

Go back to them, take away what's left, tell them to ram their custom right up where the sun don't shine (and a bit further) or accept a further ten percent increase in price. Plenty of businesses out there looking for good local honey suppliers, I've actually turned a couple down the last month as I know I cdan clear my stock with the customers I have.

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

My time is also free, land rental is jar per hive plus a hamper at Christmas, 4x4 vehicle is 23 year old and best part of nine hundred spent on an engine rebuild again my time doing it free. fifteen nucs ordered for next year and 16 complete hives, need a bigger extractor, honey creamer, api melter the list goes on.

I think I am having a brain explosion why oh why did I do it.

 

[Plenty of honey]

Go back to them, take away what's left, tell them to ram their custom right up where the sun don't shine (and a bit further) or accept a further ten percent increase in price. Plenty of businesses out there looking for good local honey suppliers, I've actually turned a couple down the last month as I know I cdan clear my stock with the customers I have.

 

[RosieMc]

Honey? This year? I wish ....

 

[Hivemaker.]

The bulk prices being paid by some packers this year are £8 kg for heather honey and £6 kg for ordinary floral honey.

 

[mbc]

Plenty of businesses out there looking for good local honey suppliers, I've actually turned a couple down the last month as I know I cdan clear my stock with the customers I have.

This is true, I think some of the biggish players have been drawing their horns in as I have had lots of inquiries about stocking shops quite a distance from where I operate( which I've politely declined as after two poor to middling years I'm doing enough to keep my regulars supplied.)
Its a sellers market though, I could sell many times what I can produce with ease, prices should be going up rather than holding steady and certainly not going down.
@TankerJohn, businesses who try and force your hand with a squeeze like that will only be problematic to deal with in the future, I'd get your stock back, demand payment at the agreed price for whatever's sold and tell them to stuff it, as JBM suggested, unless they see the error of their ways and change their attitude pronto. Unless your pricing is unusually steep the fools will struggle to find another supplier in the present climate.

 

[Plenty of honey]

The bulk prices being paid by some packers this year are £8 kg for heather honey and £6 kg for ordinary floral honey.

i got a great price this year, no questions asked. I could have sold more. sadly couldn't supply more!!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I think some of the biggish players have been drawing their horns in as I have had lots of inquiries about stocking shops quite a distance from where I operate( which I've politely declined as after two poor to middling years I'm doing enough to keep my regulars supplied.)

Had a panicked phonecall from one of my smaller retail customers Friday - the local 'biggish' player (who supplies most of the shops in a fairly wide area to me) who also supplies her as she stocks a variety of honeys - is telling all his customers he cannot guarantee a steady supply throughout the winter into next spring and she was hoping I can guarantee a supply.
The local chemist who also sells his honey seems to have a much smaller stock now as well.

 

[psafloyd]

The people that I sell my largest amount to phoned yesterday, it went you are to expensive we will pay 25 pence less per jar for the jars we received last week. I have not altered the price for two years just hope they pay at thirty days or will go to court as a contract is in place for the agreed amount. And they have already sold half of them.

Then tell them to get stuffed. If you have a contract in place, just tell them to pay up and find another mug or face a CCJ.

 

[Stiffy]

The bulk prices being paid by some packers this year are £8 kg for heather honey and £6 kg for ordinary floral honey.

Has that gone up because of a shortage this year Pete?
S

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

seems to be a shortage - our biggest local player has basically pulled the plug on his customers (just come back from reassuring one that we both supply that I won't leave her in the lurch as long as stocks last) and I've heard reports of shortages all over.

 

[REDWOOD]

There does seem a massive shortage of honey this year, our local honey show was nearly canceled because a lack of entries and I had one shop begging me to stock their shelves but I'm not big enough to supply shops and 300 other people yet, perhaps one day, who knows

 

[Poly Hive]

This where the concept of keeping a reserve come in.

PH

 

[Haughton Honey]

Blossom appears to have settled at around £2.50-£2.70/lb currently and we're also buying heather in at £3.10/lb

All of these price rises (for whatever reason) have to be either directly or indirectly passed on to the consumer if you're a packer - which will lead to less people buying the product and opting for that nasty, overly-sweet imported rubbish - which, in turn, will lead to a fall in bulk prices again. You need buyers in volume to maintain buoyant prices and in a deflationary environment one needs to be careful.

Margins for packers are by no means what you might imagine when you have to take in to consideration: staff, marketing, events, fuel, legal/accounting/PR fees, the packaging itself et al. And on that note, don't think that selling in buckets should attract a premium as they're both fiddly and time-consuming.

We remain buyers of bulk at fair prices, but there comes a point when it makes sense to sit on your hands for a bit and see what unravels.

I say all of this, of course, as both a bee farmer and a fairly sizeable packer.