Honey Cost: An Experimental Approach for Determining the Production Costs of Honey

The Honey Cost project, conceived and developed by the CREA Policies and Bioeconomics research center (CREA PB), will develop a methodology and tools for ad hoc data collection and evaluation of the bee and honey sector and sets up a sample survey on it. The determination of the cost of honey production is carried out through a questionnaire, submitted to a sample of 434 farms with an economic size of at least EUR 8,000 of Standard Output. In the methodology adopted, three cost levels are envisaged, with the first level referring only to current expenses, the second level adding other general expenses, and, finally, the third level also adding the cost of family labor. The first survey, carried out in 2023, covered the two-year period of 2021–2022. It emerged that among the variable costs, those incurred for packaging and marketing represent, in percentage, the most important item, followed by nutrition costs, and their incidence varies depending on the farm type and on the economic size. Even among the components of general costs (depreciation and other non-direct expenses), a strong variability was found, and this attenuates when moving from small to large farms. The total production cost stands, as a sample average, at around EUR 9 per kilogram of honey produced. For many farms, this value is well above the price that is recognized by the market for their product.