Honey Market: Problems and Opportunities

Honey, despite being one of the Brazilian commodities, has not been treated, economically, in this way, harming the formation of sales price for the consumer.

Honey, despite being one of the Brazilian commodities, has not been treated, economically, in this way, harming the formation of sales price for the consumer.

With the considerable devaluation of the real against the dollar in 2021, added to an increase in global consumption of the product, there was an imbalance in the supply and demand curve, generating, in addition to the lack of honey, significant price increases of the product on the market. internal.

The price per kilo exported goes from R$ 8.98/kg in December 2019 to R$ 19.04 in January 2021. This value includes the exporter's logistical, quality and commercial costs.

 Increases in export prices significantly affect the value of the product in the domestic market, causing an increase in costs for final consumers.

Brazil exports first, and what is left is for the domestic market.

Delicious,Honey,And,Fresh,Honeycombs,On,Table,,Top,View

Table 1. Exports of Brazilian honey in the last three years.

Year
K US$
production ton
Exported Tons
US$/Kg
Average price US$
R$/Kg
SOURCE: MDIC, 2022
2019
68.384
45.801
30.039
2,28
3,94
8,98
2020
98.575
51.507
45.728
2,16
5,15
11,10
2021
163.341
do not inform
47.190
3,46
5,50
19,04

The issue of price increases in the domestic market is closely related to the demand for Brazilian honey by the USA and Germany (Table 2).

Historically, our honey is considered one of the best in the world, according to the World Beekeeping Congress (APIMONDIA), added to the practice of very competitive global prices, lead Brazil to export more honey than production destined for domestic and foreign markets.

Table 2. Main importers of Brazilian honey.

countries
2021 - FOB Amount (US$)
2021 - Net Kilogram
SOURCE: MDIC, 2022
United States
114.722.645
33.312.784
Germany
21.320.700
6.018.115
Canada
10.549.487
2.945.287
Australia
4.511.289
1.377.061
Belgium
3.699.207
1.085.184
UK
2.591.721
734.902
Netherlands (Netherlands)
2.450.440
728.084
Spain
885.974
281.760
Panama
434.971
127.354
China
401.187
82.511
Others
1.773.473
496.887
Total
163.341.094
47.189.929

Unfortunately, we do not formally have the national honey consumption figures.  A lot of homework still needs to be done in this regard, but we can estimate, based on informal records, the amount of 60 grams of honey, on average, for each Brazilian. 

This per capita, which due to the lack of government policies to encourage consumption and information campaigns on the benefits of honey, should not have changed significantly in the last 5 years, estimates an internal consumption of approximately 15,000 tons.  

It is noted, however, that this consumption is of all the honey used in Brazil, that is, the product destined for the Brazilian table, the cosmetics industry, the animal feed industry, tobacco, the dairy industry, granola , cereal bars and other food products industries that use honey as an ingredient. 

beekeeping Brazil
2017
2018
2019
2020
SOURCE: IBGE (SIDRA table 74)
Production (KR$)
514.256
501.959
492.263
621.447
Production (Ton)
41.696
42.346
45.801
51.508
Average Price/Kg
12,33
11,85
10,75
12,07

There are major inconsistencies when taking into account Brazilian consumption (in pessimistic analyses) plus exports in 2020. We have, for example, this year, a deficit of more than 11 thousand tons per year.  

 That's the question: fraud or smuggling? Remaining inventories from previous years cannot be, since we have been accumulating this mismatch of production and consumption (domestic and export) for some time.  

 The numbers of our market in 2021 are even more promising when we talk about the scarcity of honey production in our country, due to the fact that exports continue to grow strongly. 

Great opportunities are present at the moment for beekeepers to become more and more professional and achieve success in their endeavors.  

 We still have a lot of space!!! 

 

Daniel A. Cavalcante 
CEO of BALDONI 

Did you like the article?

share on facebook
share on twitter
Share on Linkdin
share on whatsapp

leave your comments

en_US