Honey, hives increase but for beekeepers revenues and margins at a minimum
According to a Crea survey, 37% of beekeepers are under 40 years old and almost 30% have a degree in their drawer
by Manuela Soressi
3' min read
3' min read
Beekeeping is not a job for the 'old': in Italy 37% of beekeepers are under 40 years of age and almost 30% have a degree in their drawer. However, income is hard to come by with this activity: the operating margin is indeed EUR 2.9 per kg of honey produced, but if the unpaid work of the beekeeper and his family is taken into account - a value that is not always easy to determine accurately - then earnings are drastically reduced. This is revealed by Honey Cost, the Honey Production Cost Survey carried out by the Crea Centre for Policy and Bioeconomics in collaboration with the National Honey Observatory.
"In 2024, almost all economic indicators were down compared to the previous year: in particular, honey sales revenues fell by 17%, due to the reduction of over 10% in yields and the lower prices recognised for some types of honey," explains Milena Verrascina, of the research group that conducted the survey. If we consider the two-year period, then, compared to a productivity per hive of about 180 euros, profitability does not go beyond 60 euros due to operating costs that exceed 120 euros per hive".
The substantial increase in the share of public support (+50% in 2024) helps the sector but has failed to generate a significant impact because its weight on company revenues remains marginal (5%),
Although between 2019 and 2024 the number of hives increased by 24% and national honey production grew by 17% (21,850 tonnes last year), as reported in the annual report of the National Honey Observatory, beekeeping companies have struggled to obtain sufficient production yields to cover the high production costs. Faced with double-digit increases in variable and fixed costs and considering the nominal 'value' of family labour, Crea calculates that producing one kg of honey costs a beekeeper 9.7 euros on average. Expenses that not all beekeepers manage to cover.
"Based on the data collected in the Honey Cost Survey, the difference between operating cost and selling price is 32%," adds Milena Verrascina, "but, if we consider the economic cost, there is only a margin for companies with yields above 20 kg of honey per hive. In all other cases, the selling price does not cover the total production costs. The beekeepers' associations have long been sounding the alarm. 'There are no longer margins to work with,' the presidents of the four beekeeping consortia in the Marche region, for example, said.
Complicating the situation is a retail market that is not very receptive, which develops 35% of sales and has to respond to a consumer who is particularly attentive to convenience. Although, as revealed by a survey carried out by Astraricerche for Unione Italiana Food, in 2024 36.5% of Italians increased their consumption of honey and the quantities bought in large-scale distribution rose by 3.4%, for a total of 15,977 tonnes of packaged honey sold, the value of the market remained stable (+0.8%) stopping at 169 million euros (source: Circana).
