The
honey consumption in France is 40 000 tons annually and the
production is about 15 000 tons. From the beginning of nineties
France faces the decrease of number of bee-keepers, apiaries and so
the honey production. Main factors are bee's disease
and mortality and also low prices due to cheap honey
importations. The quality of honey (imported and produced in France)
is decreasing.
1.
Honey production in France
In
France there is 69600 bee-keepers and 1,4 millions beehives.
Professional bee-keepers (apiaries of more than 150 beehives)
represent 2% of all bee-keepers and assure ¾ French honey
production.
Since
20 years the number of apiaries dramatically decrease.
At
the beginning of nineties in France, the production of honey was
35000 tons annually. In 2010 the production was only 15000 tons. The
country recorded only 15000 tons production. In 2011 the situation
got better (17000ton) because of very good weather conditions.
Despite the lack of official data for 2012, the year is considered as
disastrous. Bad weather during the spring and the summer influenced
badly the harvest.
About
35% of honey come from oleaginous plants.
2.
Honey importations and exportations
The
consumption of honey in France is 40000 tons and remains stable. The
demand is satisfied by importations from countries like Spain, China
or Argentina.
3.
Difficulties on the market
The
biggest difficulty on the market in France but also in other
countries are diseases and the high mortality of bees and the
decrease of production of honey by them. The main reasons are
pesticides, antibiotics and other chemicals.
The
controls showed that honey (also organic honey) are contaminated by
chemicals.
Another
problem for French honey market is price dumping from importers from
countries like China. French producer sell
1kg of honey for 3 Euros and the honey coming from Asia is sold for
1,5 Euro/kg. The pressure on the prices
results in decrease of honey quality.
Sources
:
February
2007 cari.be
February
2009 agriculture.gouv.fr
March
2009 ecotidien.fr
2010-2013
franceagimer.fr
MArch
2010 senat.fr
October
2010 economie.gouv.fr
Enquête
de consommation du miel en France
February
2011 APINOV
March
2011 huffingtonpost.fr
July
2011 lafranceagricole.fr
July
2011 web-agri.fr
July
2011 fensea.fr
October
2011 mangerdumiel.com
October
2011 consommerdurable.com
January
2012 lemonde.fr
January
2012 reussir-grandes-cultures.com
February
2012 martitima.info
May
2012 suite101.fr
July
2012 leparisien.fr
July
2012 bfmtv.com
October
2012 snapiculture.com
Fnsea.fr
Le
Syndicat Français des Miels
Syndicat
des Producteurs de Miel de France
