*FYI* Posted from the sci.arg.beekeeping news group....
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What is Sue Bee?
Sue Bee is the only honey label found in stores nation wide and belongs
to the SIOUX HONEY ASSOCIATION, a agricultural cooperative under Iowa
and US Law. To be a member of Sue you must be a honey producer and
membership is open to all US beekeepers including native Americans but I
am not sure there are many in the SIOUX Honey Association today and I
am sure the day is close when there will have to be some name changes
but that is just one of the management decisions to be made by the
beekeepers who make up the board of directors and run the co-op.
The board is elected by the 367 honey producer members from the 13
districts covering the US from coast to coast. Sue also has one member
from Canada, and one in Mexico. Membership is open to US producers and
requires some effort and time to become a member who must demonstrate
the production of the types of quality honey packed by Sue. Interested
producers should not wait to be asked to join.
In 1996, the last year records are available for the co-op had 191
members who produced less then 40,000 pounds, and 33 who produced more then
250,000 which demonstrates that Sue is not just for the large commercial
honey producer but is divided fairly equally between the two groups
with the largest producers delivering about 43% of the honey packed and
the smaller delivering 7%, all have the same standing in a coop and one
man's vote carries no more weight then the others.
Sue bee's main product is table honey or honey packed for retail. This
requires much mild flavored and light colored honey such as clover
which is packed in mostly liquid in clear glass and plastic containers
which are the products in demand by the consumers in the US. In 1996 the
main area for this type of honey was Minnesota, 6.5 million pounds
delivered, followed by North Dakota with 5 million pounds, and South
Dakota with 4.6 million pounds.
For those who like to make a big deal about the Mexico and Canadian
members production in 1996 78,997 pounds came from the Mexican member
and 41,464 from the Canadian member.
The total amount of honey produced by all of the members of Sue in 1996
was 31,929,241 pounds, and the total bottled was 26,805,784 pounds, sold
in bulk to the Bakery trade was 12,731,416 pounds, and Clover honey sold
bulk was 3,143,055 pounds. Yep, Sue bee does buy honey outside of its
co-op membership, and they buy it from both domestic and on the world
market and buy it cheep to increase the returns for the producing
members who own the co-op. 1995 and 1996 were short crop years for much
of Sue's honey producers so in 1996 14,245,688 pounds of honey
purchases were made from non-members to add to the 31,929,241 pounds
delivered by members and 8,056,420 pounds of honey carried over from
the 1995 crop. This all made 1996 a good year from Sue Bee, with
$57,654,561 in sales from 42,680,255 pounds sold and returned a record
$.8930 cent per pound for the honey delivered by the producing members.
Sue Bee is not the largest honey packer in the United States, but it is
the only one owned and managed by 367 honey producing beekeepers and the
only one that has a national label and spends as much on honey promotion
as the rest of the honey packing industry put together and also in
addition pays its part of the National Honey Promotion tax and I must
add without the enforcement costs necessary to collect from some of the
other packers who if you are interested are now wanting to double the
assessment on honey no doubt to promote more imported honey and thicker
carpets in the NHB offices.
About the future and the 1997 crop of honey. Sue Bee is like any other
business and must remain competitive. The crop may be short, but the
price of imported honey has declined and domestic producers are not
helping by making distress sales at fire sale prices. Sue Bee expects
that because of this the earning on the 1997 crop will be about five
cents less then the 1996 crop and has resisted lowering their prices on
quality glass type honey, but has lost much bulk honey business and can
not predict how long they will be able to hold the price without an
adjustment to confirm with the market.
ttul, the OLd Drone
PS. Help the OLd Drone get a new noise by buying his latest Beekeepers
Gift, a Pop-Out POOH Bear book and two bee fan chain pulls for $23.00 pp
US.
(c) Permission is granted to freely copy this document
in any form, or to print for any use.
(w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk.
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