The metaphor was too irresistible, even for a government report.
“Things were sweet for honey producers in 2006,” said a Statistics Canada honey report.
Canadian beekeepers produced about 95 million pounds of honey in 2006. That was the second best production year ever, missing the production record by only seven million pounds, said the report.
“Saskatchewan’s crop was probably the best ever,” said Tim Wendell, president of the Saskatchewan Beekeepers Association.
He attributed the good year to near-perfect weather for honey production.
Beekeepers in the three prairie provinces continue to perform like industry
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giants, with Alberta producing 37.5 million pounds, or about 40 percent of national production.
Saskatchewan beekeepers produced about 25 million pounds of honey, followed by Manitoba production at around 18.7 million pounds. Manitoba’s production was up 48 percent from 12.6 million pounds in 2005.
“Across the board it was weather that accounted for the increase. There were really good growing conditions,” said Heather Clay, national co-ordinator of the Canadian Honey Council.
High production rates mean little to producers if decent prices don’t accompany the sunny weather. But prices have risen from dips as low as 65 cents per pound in recent years, Clay said.
In 2004-05, prices fluctuated around 80 to 85 cents per lb., said David Ostermann, pollination apiarist for the Manitoban government. The bulk price now sits around 95 cents per lb., he said.
“It’s been a really confusing market,” said Kevin Nixon, president of the Alberta Beekeepers Commission. There was an expectation that prices were on the way up due to a reported global shortage of honey, he said.
Reports from China fuelled the price-hike expectation.
The 2006 Chinese honey crop was the worst in the last 15 years, according to a report of the United Kingdom-based Fuerst Day Lawson, an international ingredient importer. The report, published in September, estimated the northern Chinese crop came in roughly 25 percent lower than normal, at about 10,000 tonnes.
Other reports pointed to shortages in U.S. production.
With a smaller than average 2006 U.S. honey crop, producers are holding their honey off the market in anticipation of higher prices, said an October 2006 market report from S. Kamberg & Company Ltd., a New York-based ingredient broker.
“Prices will be high and may even still continue to escalate,” the report said.
New U.S. legislation also fuelled expectations of higher prices. Within the last year, the U.S. Congress closed a loophole that allowed food brokers to import cheap Chinese honey into the U.S. As a result “everybody anticipated a surge in prices,” said Wendell.
The higher prices have yet to materialize, and it’s hard for producers to sell their honey.
“Nobody is even offering to buy right now at that (95 cents per lb.) price,” said Nixon.
He said he’s holding on to his honey until the packers start offering to buy again.
Most Canadian and U.S. packers are waiting until January, when estimates on the Argentinean crop come out.
Gordon Marks, chief executive officer of Winnipeg-based Bee Maid Honey, agreed.
“Most North American packers are waiting to see what the southern hemisphere crops are going to be like,” he said. The Argentine honey harvest runs in January and February.
Canadian honey prices could change depending on the result of those estimates.
