A few questions to do with Beekeeping and Honey Production

Crow92

Hi Guys,

I'm currently researching at honey production in Ireland as part of an architectural project for university. I'm basically designing an Apiary in Southern Carlow.

I'm finding heaps of online data but trying to make sense of it all and putting it out there in case there's anyone who knows about these sorts of figures.

Firstly, for example, in 2011 there was an article on agriculture.gov.ie which stated there are approximately 24,000 hives in ireland
http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/press/pressreleases/2011/july/title,56880,en.html
Then in 2013 there's an article in the irish times which said the amount of hives after the winter was down to 10k from 20k the previous year.
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/beekeepers-facing-meltdown-as-more-than-half-of-hives-wiped-out-29394236.html

I'm wondering if anyone knows where I could find accurate data from 2013 or 2014 on the number of hives in Ireland?



Secondly I've found data from FAO Stat which map out the production of honey in Ireland from 1963 - 2013
http://faostat3.fao.org/browse/Q/QL/E



Then I've found that based on 300 tonnes of honey production a year in Ireland (Which doesn't match up to the amount suggested in the FAOSTATS)
we produce about 20% of the the demand for honey.
http://www.fmcg.ie/sweet-returns-in-growing-honey-market/

So we can assume demand is around 1,500 tonnes annually.
Now, where I get confused is that the website states that the 1,200 tonnes of imported honey have a value of 90 million, which boils down to 75 euro per kilo which makes no sense.

If we go back to agriculture.gov.ie they say we produce about 250 tonnes per annum and this has a farmgate value of 2.75million which works out at 16.5 million based on the deman of 1,500 tonnes. (This has a value of 11 euro per kilo) Is this retail value?


Again if anyone knows the value of the honey market in ireland and the could enlighten me on this it'd be very much appreciated or even know where to direct me to.

Thanks in advance,

Crow92

Knowall Macduff

I wish you luck with that one, there are no accurate figures on beekeepers or beehives or bee colonies in Ireland, quite a lot of beekeepers dont belong to associations and nobody even knows they have bees.

solargain

there are 3300 FIBKA beekeepers , with an average of 3 hives each , that is how the figures are worked out. As the last poster says there are no accurate figures as most just have them for a hobby. The demand is estimated from the imports