Professional development to elevate the export of honey

Reduce dramatically both quantity and value

According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Son - Director of the Institute of Animal Husbandry (MARD), Vietnam annually produced over 55,000 tons of honey and more than 1,000 tons of beeswax. Of that, about 85-90% was exported, the remaining was consumed domestically. The honey was exported mainly into the “choosy” markets, which required high quality such as the USA, EU, and Japan.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Son added: In 2014, Vietnam exported nearly 50,000 tons of honey with export value of US$ 150 million. This result got the Vietnamese honey export the 6th place in the world and second place in Asia. However, in the current three years, due to many objective and subjective reasons, Vietnam’s honey export has decreased significantly in both quantity and value, causing difficulties for the beekeepers as well as the exporting enterprises. In particular, in 2017, Vietnam exported only 39,000 tons of honey, earning nearly US$ 70 million.

Mr. Nguyen Dang Tho – the foreign bee keeping household in the farm town of Moc Chau, Son La shared: In 2015, his family raised 1,800 clusters of foreign bees with 108 tons of honey per year. In the first 6 months of 2015, the selling price of honey peaked at 45,000 VND/kg. However, in the last 6 months of 2015, the export stalled, the prices fell to only 16,000 VND/kg. From 2016 to 2018, the honey production and export prices bloomed continuously over the years and lasted until the present. The selling prices of some types of honey were about 12,000 VND/kg. These prices were not enough for the investment and spending costs which forced his household cut the production by 950 clusters of bees.

According to a representative of the Bureau of Animal Husbandry (MARD), from 2016 to now, the bee industry has faced difficulties. One of the reasons was that the statistics were much lower than the actual honey exports. Therefore, some organizations and individuals thought that the export of honey from Vietnam was mainly from China. Besides, some beekeepers also followed the profits, explored unsystematically, which reduced the quality of honey...

Raising the bees professionally

Regarding the honey export story, Mr. Dinh Quynh Tam, Chairman of the Vietnam Beekeepers Association, said that the honey was exported mainly in raw form, lacking at the present, lacked the brands in the international market. Meanwhile, the quality of export honey has been checked strictly by the countries. “In order to export to the European market, the honey was not added with any food ingredients as well as artificial supplements. The honey was not allowed to have impurities, strange taste, contaminated during processing and preserving, was not allowed fermentation, man-made acid level was not changed, and it was not heated. In addition, the honey was also controlled severely with regard to residues and contamination in the honey products…,” Mr. Tam said.

To overcome the difficulties in honey export, restore its position, even promote the export more strongly, Mr. Dinh Quyet Tam said that it was necessary to survey the official statistical figures on the clusters of bees, number of beekeepers, output, export...; to research and develop the model of bee keeping in barrels, and produce the organic honey.

A Representative of the Bureau of Animal Husbandry analyzed: The biggest limitation of the honey industry in Vietnam was the weakness and lack of the breed raising stage. The productivity of original breeding bees were not improved, lack of good breeds provided for production, there had not been the key researches to improve the quality of bees. Even in some places, people bought the floating breeds with unknown origins, which caused the mixed breeds, the high inbreeding rate, which affected greatly the quality of breeds and honey. In order to improve productivity, quality, output, and value of Vietnamese honey, the representative emphasized that beekeeping should be developed professionally and planned sustainably. Regarding breeds, it was essential to maintain and improve the quality of bee breeds, increase the rate of foreign breeds from 75% to 80% by 2020. In particular, establishing a national standard for the bee products towards the EU standards, monitoring closely the quality management system and animal health were considered the urgent solutions.

Around the story of honey export, some experts pointed out that: In parallel with improving quality, perfecting the standards for Vietnamese honey, branding the honey also needs to be deployed strongly through the cooperation of beekeeper enterprises, the export enterprises as well as the management agencies.