Matters of concern.
- Thread starter James
- Start date
there is a few tricks to storing them outside, ie have to be upside down or at least out of the weather. right pita, hence we store everything indoors now.
one year a buyer sent us some drums from another outfit, and a lot of them had 12" of water in them. they had been storing them outside in the rain wrong way up.
one thing that trip us up years ago was the trucking firms didn't have RMP for transport.
Yes well that's something I don't agree with. A truck should not have to be RMP just to move a sealed drum from one place to another.
o wait, it gets worse !
we just had a company who is putting tamper seals on their drums. so they can tell if the drums have been opened during transport.
Aah, we can grumble 'til the cows come home about how hard it is to make a dollar from the bees ..... and with no action nothing will change. I see a kilo of honey in the supermarket is now worth almost $18. That means about $12.50 has been added to the product I sold to the packer ....
Any way, it is what it is ..... I just love that expression ..... It is what it is, and I 'aint smart enough to fix the problem, so I'll just carry on grumbling .... right ?
Or am I .....?
I read this evening in a news letter from Mountain Riv er, to whome we supply venison , a round up of a salestrip they undertook to Scandanavia, pushing their wrapped portions of venison ready to flip into a pan. Part of the salestrip was a culinary extravaganza of NZ produce put on by the NZ embassy in Stockholm ..... fine NZ food washed down with fine NZ wine ..... what a marvellous opportunity to add fine NZ honey ....
So, you smart boys in APINZ leading our industry why are you not talking with these other smart boys in the wine and meat sector to compliment their wares ?
Does'nt seem like rocket science ..... But then, what do I know.
Any way, it is what it is ..... I just love that expression ..... It is what it is, and I 'aint smart enough to fix the problem, so I'll just carry on grumbling .... right ?
Or am I .....?
I read this evening in a news letter from Mountain Riv er, to whome we supply venison , a round up of a salestrip they undertook to Scandanavia, pushing their wrapped portions of venison ready to flip into a pan. Part of the salestrip was a culinary extravaganza of NZ produce put on by the NZ embassy in Stockholm ..... fine NZ food washed down with fine NZ wine ..... what a marvellous opportunity to add fine NZ honey ....
So, you smart boys in APINZ leading our industry why are you not talking with these other smart boys in the wine and meat sector to compliment their wares ?
Does'nt seem like rocket science ..... But then, what do I know.
A general lack of cohesion??
Beekeepes are odd folk. And it's got worse over the last decade. Very secretive and competitive.
It doesn't help much that we work independently, self reliant. In our own small universe
That.
Competition over manuka definitely brought out the worst in people.
I was surprised how things changed, you could once talk to most people about pretty much anything and 99% of folks were happy to share and even try to help. Then one day I noticed it wasn't like that, some people were sealed books, couldn't even discuss the simple stuff, people didn't want to give anything away.
Which other than being sad, was also kind of funny in a way, with often very new beekeepers jealously guarding what they thought was some special knowledge they had.
You do not, as a rule, get other sectors like for example, dairy farming, acting like that.
Competition over manuka definitely brought out the worst in people.
I was surprised how things changed, you could once talk to most people about pretty much anything and 99% of folks were happy to share and even try to help. Then one day I noticed it wasn't like that, some people were sealed books, couldn't even discuss the simple stuff, people didn't want to give anything away.
Which other than being sad, was also kind of funny in a way, with often very new beekeepers jealously guarding what they thought was some special knowledge they had.
You do not, as a rule, get other sectors like for example, dairy farming, acting like that.
Very true @Alastair.
i think one of the best things we could do to help ourselves would be share info on what prices you are being offered or selling your honey for.
no need to say who’s offering those prices but to have an idea of what others are being offered for similar honey would be really helpful because as it is we are flying blind and just hoping the buyers are doing right by you.
i think one of the best things we could do to help ourselves would be share info on what prices you are being offered or selling your honey for.
no need to say who’s offering those prices but to have an idea of what others are being offered for similar honey would be really helpful because as it is we are flying blind and just hoping the buyers are doing right by you.
What is also not rocket science James - ApiNZ is voluntary. Fewer membership subscriptions, less money. Less money - fewer/no Scandanavian sales trips.
"Ah, but what about the marketing funds from the levy" I hear you ask.
Good point . .about that. . . .
Well for me, all I do is a North Island bush blend, it goes out at $5.00 + GST a kg.
That's bulk price. Honey in jars to shops goes out at the same price, plus cost of packing, delivery, etc.
I heard some people are getting a bit more now. But I have established and stable customers and do make a slim profit, so not in a rush to rock the boat and put prices up, but may do eventually.
I am selling for 5.50, drum was supplied.
Pasture
TRue John ...... the thing is Networking does'nt cost a lot of money ....scratch the itch on my back, and I might do the same for you oneday.
if I remember rightly marketing was well down on the list of “ like to spend” levy money on there we’re a heap of other random things higher up the list that completely put me off voting for a levy.
ive Been around long enough to know that if there’s a slush fund of other peoples money there’s always plenty of people wanting to make use of it with barely anything helpful to the masses at the other end so I’m glad im Not paying a levy on top of all the other costs to random organisations in the industry that hold their hand out
That sounds the same as 'if you fix my extractor/truck/suspension, I might pay the bill one day'?
Can't run a business on could-a/would-a/should-a
Well, marketing is essentially what James was suggesting above, Frazz
At risk of rehashing it, a 'slush fund' is very narrow thinking. Nearly all other primary industries have levies, whose acitivities (voted on by members) have saved the particular industry at various times. Remember when you could have bought a hectare of kiwifruit-growing country for less than bare-land value? What saved the kiwifruit industry? Research and continued investment.
I am bemused (and saddened) that the groups that actively campaigned against the levy are now those asking for money to support their various apiculture projects. And they wonder why the projects never get started. . ..
How many hives have been poisoned or otherwise died with various offf-the-internet oxalic recipes? Who's looked at formic variation in different regions/temperatures?? I guess everyone can do their own work there
Gino, you say you think there is a buddy system, not sure about that, but certainly it is about who you know and there is nothing wrong with. My experience is, if I produce consistently clean honey, low cfu, hmf below 5ppm and moisture 17% or lower and not heated in any way, I can sell my honey and in many cases also the honey I extract for other beekeepers. I always want the season's honey sold before I start another harvesting season, which I have been pretty much able to do for the last 10 years. Of course buyers buy, in my case, because they know me.
I sold my Rewa for $7 and MF also for $7.
I sold my Rewa for $7 and MF also for $7.
Thanks Gerrit.
That's a decent payment. We always produce good honey as well, but we don't get consistent buyers. It's like there's a big packing contract and that contract gets filled by different packers each season. Like a shuffle dance. They say we'll buy next season honey, but then it's all cold.
It certainly helps having a network.
No one is going to share their manuka sale prices.... It must be selling.
i can't comment on prices, the boss doesn't tell me and i don't ask (otherwise you tend to work according to the wallet and screw things up).
however i have noticed, by the drums i trip over, that beeks that chased the highest price often get left high and dry, and have to find new buyers every year. the networking thing, seller/buyer relationship is important in any business.
manuka i don't think is selling, or at least not much. to the point many beeks didn't bother chasing it this season.
the other issue of course is size. buyers like big players who can fill the whole order, instead of dealing with 50 different beeks.
True again ..... but you miss the point point ..... it's a bit lke me building a state of the art extracting plant for my 300 hive operation and it cost me 350k . Its not good use of money, but if I did a deal with four other bee keepers and we each put in 60k , then we might be onto something.
Marketing is a bottomless pit and NZ is at the bottom of it on the world scale, so why not bring producers together and go to the customer as a united front ? Yes there will be a bit of charity involved with richer people carrying the not so rich ..... but that's how life works if we all want to eat.
And True, it's probably too idealistic for the society that we live in where "He with the biggest toys wins".