Supplying honey in bulk ?

[AI Queens]

Looking at it from the buyers point of view selling for €9.00
Subtract jars, lids and labels. Time spent jarring up, and then coping with crystalised honey.
Plus needing to make a profit.
I would be expecting the beekeeper to get £4 a pound.
Certainly no less than £3.50

Looking at it from the Beekeepers point of view.
12 months labour costs.
Cost of hive, frames, wax, uncapping equipment etc.
Winter feed and varroa treatment.
Insurances.
Car maintenance and petrol.
I could go on
I would be expecting the beekeeper to get £10 a pound !

Hi Im not quite sure I agree with your analogy of this
I agree with your first past of your post and could add a lot more to that part, but the second part im struggling with a bit!!

12 months labour costs.
WHAT are you at your hive for 8hrs a day ???
Cost of hive, frames, wax, uncapping equipment etc.
Most of these costs would have been covered if your not a commercial bee keeper as you dont buy frames,wax ect every year.
Winter feed and varroa treatment.
£0.50 a bag of sugar, Varroa treatment works out at about £0.01 per treatment (depending on what you use and how many hives you have?). I
f you have VRB then it cost you nothing.
Insurances.
Mine cost's me £200 for the year. £0.54 per day
Car maintenance and petrol.
You can ONLY take this into account if you are using your car totally for your business. Otherwise its a small percentage of the cost it cost you.
I could go on
So could I and many others
I would be expecting the beekeeper to get £10 a pound !
YES PLEASE

 

[Murox]

Article 16 Clause 4 may also be relevant:
(4) The product name of a relevant honey may be supplemented by information relating to its regional, territorial or topographical origin but no person may trade in a relevant honey for which such supplemental information is provided unless the product comes entirely from the indicated origin.

This still doesn't overcome the question of how "local" is "local".

Isn't the word “local” just another example of ambiguity that advertisers have exploited over time ? Wherever it comes from it is 'local' to there !

 

[ericbeaumont]

This still doesn't overcome the question of how "local" is "local".

That is a well-travelled road which leads everywhere and nowhere: the word is open to interpretation at every turning. Mostly, often and usually, you and I and your customers might imagine a 5-mile radius. Another, longer view may define local as within a county, or a whole country.

The word has no legal meaning but conveys comforting authenticity: the supplementary info. on my labels reads: This unprocessed honey was produced by bees foraging up to two miles from Walthamstow Town Hall. The aim is to suggest local and wed the product to an identifiable location.

 

[BeeWitch]

Is that supplementary information for cut comb; surely extraction is a process?

 

[gmonag]

You can never tell with consumers:

I manned a stall for my BKA at a local Farmers Market this weekend. The association was charging £5.50/454g. I also sold my own honey at £7.00/454g, which outsold the cheaper jars! Explain that.

 

[Murox]

You can never tell with consumers:

I manned a stall for my BKA at a local Farmers Market this weekend. The association was charging £5.50/454g. I also sold my own honey at £7.00/454g, which outsold the cheaper jars! Explain that.

Cleary your cheery face.

 

[gmonag]

That can't be the cause - I was wearing a mask!

 

[steve1958]

Hi Im not quite sure I agree with your analogy of this
I agree with your first past of your post and could add a lot more to that part, but the second part im struggling with a bit!!

I am sure you are right. The fact is Beekeepers invest a lot in their bees and that jar of honey is of considerable value.
I keep bees as a hobby, so any financial income is a bonus, but I doubt I will ever earn enough to pay for what I have spent on my hobby.
Though I do assure my wife that it is a self funding hobby

 

[Popparand]

I am a hobby beekeeper and I sell 227g jars of Blossom Honey for £4.25 to 2 outlets, I thought that was reasonable.
They sell it on for £6.50 and it’s been flying off their shelves.

When I manage to produce some comb honey I was thinking of selling it to the outlets for 3.5p per gram net weight....is this too cheap?

I experimented with making comb honey in frames with no foundation this year. Worked out well provided that you alternate with a frame of drawn comb. I sell my honey in local markets in 8, 12, and 16 ounce jars for £3.50, 5, 6 respectively. I put about a 100 g chunk in a 12 ounce jar and top up with clear honey to make weight. And sell for £6.00. This means I am selling my chunk honey for nearly £11.00 per pound, without having to add foundation or bother with extraction etc. Or mess around with special containers. The offcuts go into a 16 ounce jar for top up for the grandchildren. Smiles all round!

 

[Speybee]

Irrespective of the content of FSA e-courses, there is a Statutory Instrument which applies in this case, the Honey (Scotland) Regulations 2015, of which Article 16 States:
"No person may trade in honey unless the country or countries of origin where the honey has been harvested is indicated on the label..."

(An identical clause also applies in England, but since the poster reported this in Fife, I am assuming it is believed to be happening in Scotland).

So the practice as described above is not legitimate unless they state the countries (or the "EU" bit as currently allowed). There is no definition of "Local" within the labelling regulations.

(Or perhaps they are bringing whole hives over in suitcases and harvesting "locally"?)

Yes it’s happening in Fife.
I know Fife is a Kingdom ( but I had no idea yet that it had become a republic)

My pal has told me several local producers have complained to the council trading standards and been told it’s all above board....it sounds incredible to me.

A hive in a suitcase?....I would just love to see the problems that would cause at customs......a case of “ If you put your problems in a suitcase and I put my problems in a suitcase......we would not swap suitcases( comes to mind)

 

[Speybee]

Nope - you've been fed duff information

What bit is duff?
‘The country where where the product underwent substantial, economically justified processing’?
In that particular part of the country it seems that blending honey from another country eg Poland with locally produced honey from local apiaries in Scotland, then jarring it and selling it for a far greater price than what it was bought for in Poland seems to come under ‘ the country where the product underwent substantial, economically justified processing’

Or is calling this practice ‘honey laundering’ duff?

Which ever way, the sellers who think that honey from Poland tinkered with a wee bit of Scottish honey and then calling it ‘Local’ must think some of us floated up the River Clyde on a water biscuit?

 

[Somerford]

I have been asked by a seller of honey would I be interested in selling all my honey in bulk ,
As I am very busy in work I would prefer to off load my honey in one go as it would cut out the hassle of jarring and dropping off to people and shops ect ,
He asked me to come back to him with a price per pound,what would be a fair percentage for both parties. a jar of summer and spring honey supplied to shops here is usually around €9.00 a pound .
[/QUOTE

Bulk price to packers is falling - down from last years high average of £3.20-£3.30 to around £3.00 - IF you can find a packer to buy it.
The summer crop from the big producers is still to be bought and that tells me a few things.

1. There is oversupply of bulk British honey - not that demand has fallen but there simply isn’t the space on the shelves for it in supermarkets
2. Price expectations are too high
3. European honey is cheaper - and while shouldn’t be bottled and jarred and labelled as UK honey show me how this can be stopped - I know it goes on
4. For the smaller producer £2.50 per lb will get the sale, £3/lb is borderline. Anything above unless it’s a specialist single flora honey like borage or heather then good luck

just my thoughts
KR
S

 

[Somerford]

I've seen bulk blossom honey for sale from £3 per lb to £3.50 per lb.
I currently sell mine at £3.40 per lb in 30lb buckets.
A lot say getting over £3.20 per lb is good.
Then of course you get some hobby beekeepers that are happy to sell honey for next to nothing, cheapest I have seen is £2.50 per lb in a jar labelled.

At that price I’d buy their entire stock

 

[Somerford]

Isn't the word “local” just another example of ambiguity that advertisers have exploited over time ? Wherever it comes from it is 'local' to there !

Local is defined as up to 100 miles as flora largely doesn’t change in that zone

 

[Speybee]

Isn't the word “local” just another example of ambiguity that advertisers have exploited over time ? Wherever it comes from it is 'local' to there !

I just think that some folk are basically misleading buyers into thinking a product is entirely local produce when in fact it’s not.
It’s a bit like finding out your dram was distilled in China but bottled in Scotland.

 

[Speybee]

At that price I’d buy their entire stock

I am a hobby beekeeper and my honey sells at trade at £4.25 per a 227g jar and the outlets sell it on at £6.50 a jar

 

[Speybee]

Local is defined as up to 100 miles as flora largely doesn’t change in that zone

So I think there is a bit of a stretch of the imagination, if anyone thinks Fife is 100 miles away from Poland then?

 

[Speybee]

That is a well-travelled road which leads everywhere and nowhere: the word is open to interpretation at every turning. Mostly, often and usually, you and I and your customers might imagine a 5-mile radius. Another, longer view may define local as within a county, or a whole country.

The word has no legal meaning but conveys comforting authenticity: the supplementary info. on my labels reads: This unprocessed honey was produced by bees foraging up to two miles from Walthamstow Town Hall. The aim is to suggest local and wed the product to an identifiable location.

Yes indeedy, the use of the word ‘local’ used where 70% of a product comes from a different country, never mind a different county, is very misleading.
It was so inconceivable this was happening, so when my pal told me about it, I was incredulous and that’s why I posted my comment, as I thought ...’Naw that can’t be right?’.....but it’s opened up a debate amongst the forum anyway

 

[fiat500bee]

So I think there is a bit of a stretch of the imagination, if anyone thinks Fife is 100 miles away from Poland then?

Polish honey is good; but we buy it from the Polish shelves in Tesco...they call it Miod.
I don't think any of this is new; long before even thinking of becoming a beekeeper there were tales of people buying really cheap Tesco or Lidl honey (mind you Lidl's isn't bad) and relabelling it as local honey.

 

[Speybee]

Polish honey is good; but we buy it from the Polish shelves in Tesco...they call it Miod.
I don't think any of this is new; long before even thinking of becomeing a beekeeper there were tales of people buying really cheap Tesco or Lidl honey (mind you Lidl's isn't bad) and relabelling it as local honey.

Well Fiatbee, I’ve certainly been living a sheltered life as I would never have thought about that.....passing off food from a supermarket to sell on, as if Id made it myself.

Any honey I used to buy before I had my own couple of hives was honey from an old beekeeper who made the balsa wood squares and it sold in the local bakers just down the road from my work.
Sadly now he’s passed away and the bakery has closed as the owners boys, did not want to take it on.

If truth be told I did not get involved with bees because I was madly concerned about the environment, I got involved due to a purely selfish reason and that was to increase the yield from my fruit trees and soft fruit bushes and for that I needed bees.
Honey has been an added tasty bonus and the bees have become a wee bit addictive