At 12:11 PM 5/12/05 -0500, you wrote:
>
>It is impossible to compete with foreign honey in the U.S..
>It is foolish to try.
>

So true- but only if you play by their rules! Many years ago- back in the
early 70's actually, I was in the Maple Syrup business. I marketed my syrup
to tourists through specialty stores in smaller containers (1/10th gallon)
and capitalized heavily on words like "pure" and "natural" and "local",
attractive packaging, etc.. As a result, I was able to get $40 a gallon for
my syrup while the going price was closer to $20. I spent more time
developing markets, it would have been simpler to put the stuff up in
gallon jugs or 5 gallon cans and got rid of it but I wasn't a big producer
and the operation wouldn't have been a job, it would have been a nuisance.
Targeting a niche market made my small syrup operation profitable, at the
expense of labor-intensive marketing activities. Hell, I couldn't afford my
own syrup :)

Now I'm becoming a small-scale beekeeper and I intend to utilize the same
kind of marketing approach with my honey and other hive products- I can
afford to do it this way because I've got 5 hives, not 2000. My goal is to
have fun, learn a lot about bees, and make honey, and I'm sure I'll be
successful at that. I hope to also make money and while I don't expect to
get rich on 5 hives but I do intend to squeeze every last nickle out of my
production and in no way plan to compete with imported and/or mass-produced
honey. Hopefully I'll actually be able to afford to eat my own honey :)

I'm sure everyone here has heard this argument before.

George-
-------------------------------------
George Fergusson <[log in to unmask]>
Whitefield, Maine

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