Overview of the British Apiculture

Keywords

: British bee industry; honey production; honey import and export; beeswax import and export

from June 8 to 24, 2013, the author and his party visited the UK. During their stay in the UK, they investigated the market situation of British bee products in detail and got a preliminary understanding of the basic situation of the British bee industry. The development of the British bee industry is introduced as follows.

Overall situation of apiculture in the UK in 1.

Although there are no official statistics on the number of bee colonies and beeswax production in the UK, according to the author's understanding during the UK, there are 200000 colonies in the UK. Annual consumption of honey is at 25000 t. There are 40000 beekeepers in the UK, 30000 of whom have participated in the BeeBase scheme and registered.

Since 2000-2011, the British honey production (Figure 1) has shown an overall upward trend, of which the honey production reached 8216t in 2009, the highest in 11 years. Honey production remained at 6300t in 2010 and 2011.

The species of bees raised in the UK are mainly Western bees, of which Italian bees are the main ones. The main diseases of bees are virus diseases, chalk disease is less common, beehive beetles have occurred, no small bee mites. Bee American larval rancid disease is not common, once it occurs, it is usually treated by burning to control its epidemic.

The production of bee industry in Britain is mainly to produce honey. The production season of honey is concentrated in April-September, of which may-August can be used for artificial insemination of the queen bee and breeding of the queen bee. Due to the cold British winter, there are usually only 3-4 frames left after the 10-frame bee overwinters. The number of bee colonies used for pollination in the UK is small, with about 20% of the colony used for pollination.

British government involvement in beekeeping began in the 1940 s. At that time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries rationed the supply of edible sugar during the Second World War and needed to develop beekeeping to replace the supply of sugar. The first legislation for beekeeping was the Larval Rot Disease Act of 1942. The current bee health regulation is the Bee Disease and Pest Control Order 2006. This decree covers possible outbreaks of pests and diseases such as larval rancid disease in the Americas, larval rancid disease in Europe, small beehive beetles and small bee mites. The decree also clarifies the important role of bees and bumblebees.

Import and Export of British Honey in 2.

Since 2000, the import of British honey has continued to increase, and the import volume has continued to increase (Table 1). The increase in imports is mainly due to the increase in the unit price of imports, which increased from US $1.05/kg in 2000 to US $3.54/kg in 2011. Since 2006-2011, the UK has become the world's third largest honey importer after Germany and the United States. In 2012, it became the fourth largest importer of honey after the United States, Germany and Japan.

Table 2 British honey exports in 2000-2011

the UK accounts for only 2-8% of imports per year compared to 20000-30000 t per year. Since 2003, the export volume of honey has been increasing, and the export volume of honey has continued to increase. The unit price of exports continues to rise. In 2009, the export unit price reached $7.75/kg. Compared with the increase in import prices, the unit price of British honey exports has increased even more, and the price difference with the unit price of imports has continued to increase.

3. British Beeswax Import and Export

beeswax is a secondary bee product in the British bee trade. Although the import and export volume is not large, the unit price is higher than honey. Due to the limited consumption market, the quantity of beeswax imported from Britain is relatively stable. Except for the beeswax imports exceeding 700t in 2002 and 2003, the beeswax imports in other years basically remained at 400-600t (Table 3). Before 2005, the import unit price of beeswax was basically stable at about US $4/kg. After 2005, it was basically stable at US $6-7/kg. The UK's beeswax imports remain at the top 5-10 levels in the world.

Table 3 Import of beeswax in the UK from 2000 to 2011

source: FAO website

although beeswax is imported every year, British beeswax is still exported to the international market, with 100-170t beeswax exported every year (Table 4). The export unit price is basically 6-8 USD/kg. In 2011, the export unit price of beeswax rose to $9.298/kg. Compared with imported beeswax, the unit price of exported beeswax is always higher than that of imported beeswax. In the beeswax export market, the UK is basically in the world 9-13 (from more to less).

Table 4 British beeswax exports in 2000-2011

4. UK bee products market

british bee products are mainly natural and pure as the selling point, many honey is clearly marked with the words "natural and pure", the packaging is very beautiful. Sales of bee products are mainly concentrated in supermarkets, health care stores and cosmetics stores. During the period in the UK, the author did not find a franchise shop for bee products. The biggest selling bee product in the UK is honey, with fewer product types such as propolis, bee pollen and royal jelly. The main varieties of honey are acacia honey, wild flower honey, forest honey, spring honey and summer honey. The highest selling price and the largest variety of products is Manuka honey from New Zealand. In the UK, New Zealand's Manuka honey is very popular, both in supermarkets and health care stores. It is often seen that Manuka honey produced by different manufacturers is sold at the same time. In Britain's famous Tesco supermarket, 454g of pure honey costs 1.76 pounds (1 pound is about 9.32 yuan, 2013. The Rowse Honey Company, established in 1938, registered 340g of pure honey under the Rowse brand for 2.72 pounds. The price of honey in health care stores is higher than in supermarkets. The price of honey in health care stores is generally 250g at 9.99 pounds. For example, 250g packages such as Thyme brand honey, Beech brand forest honey dew and organic forest honey collected from Zambian forest by Zambian Bee Company all cost 9.99 pounds. 250g of Manuka honey costs £ 16.99.

There are also many health care shops in major cities in the UK that sell honey and bee products, and cosmetics and skin care products made from honey are also sold in cosmetics shops. Many bee companies produce cosmetics and skin care products such as hand creams. For example, the honey hand cream produced by Thewilt County Beekeepers is available in lavender, rose, orange and Honeybuckle4 types, and the 35g package costs 7.99 pounds. 100g of pollen costs £ 8.99. 100g of honey costs £ 8.99 and 250ml of orange-scented shower gel containing wild honey and olive oil costs £ 9. 75ml of hand oil from Mains & le sells for £ 7.25.

Differences between 5. and China

there are two differences between China and Britain in the bee industry: First, the British government attaches great importance to the beekeeping industry. As early as the 1940 s, the government was involved in the management of the beekeeping industry. In 1942, Britain enacted the first beekeeping legislation, the Larva Rancid Disease Act. In 1950, the State appointed the National Agricultural Advisory Service to be responsible for bee health. The British government is fully aware of the importance of bees and has always believed that the purpose of scientific research is to protect bees. Bees are essential pollinators of crops and wild plants and support for the bee industry are two of the main reasons for the UK government to protect bees. Second, the British bee products market, especially the skin care market is a very mature market. Skin care products are beautifully packaged, varied and well-made, and have a certain popularity and purchasing power among consumers. This is in stark contrast to the just start of the Chinese bee products skin care market. From the British bee products skin care market, the future of China's bee products skin care market will have great development potential and broad application prospects.

Source: Agricultural Vision | Release Date: July 08, 2015 | Responsible Editor: Zhai Tianchang