March Report

Where Do They Sell Their Honey?

What do people sell, and where do they sell it. When it comes to honey, there’s a predictable number of places you can sell your crop, and we’ve listed many, certainly not all of them here. And we’ve been doing this for eight years. Some trends have stabilized and can be counted on each year with little variation. It’s when you see that bump in the road that you want to take a second look. 

This year, contrary to what we would have expected farm market sales are sliding slowly off the display table for both the number of reporters selling there and the amount of their honey being sold there. Flea market sellers are up, but sales are down, and health food store sales continue their slide in both sellers and amount sold. Mom and Pop sales are back to where they belong in sellers and sales. Bigger chunks are being sold to big packers, who usually want it all, but interestingly sales at work are down in numbers both ways. What’s the most interesting is the number of people selling at fairs, but how little they are selling. 

If we were going to guess…the tendency toward putting energy into making bees rather than honey because of the lower honey prices is spreading into the smaller markets, too. Local honey gets a pretty good price, but maybe local bees are doing better.