Business selling honey profitability. Where and how to sell honey: features and practical recommendations. Registration and taxes

Starting a honey business is not easy. To form an apiary in your area, it is important to take into account a lot of nuances. A correct understanding of the biological characteristics of bees, methods of breeding and keeping them will help the novice beekeeper to make own business profitable.

How to work with "beneficial" insects

Before you start creating your own apiary, it does not hurt to determine your degree of readiness to work with bees. Check if you have an allergic reaction to bee venom, otherwise organizing a honey business may become irrelevant.

If there is no allergy, take some time to study the behavior of bees. These are sensitive and hardworking insects that jealously guard their honey. But they never attack first, unless someone disturbs their hive. You shouldn't have any concerns about this.

Before working directly with bees, you should wipe your hands with mint or lemon balm, as this smell soothes insects.

The bees cannot stand the black color and the smell of wool. A white coat and a special mask should be your main equipment in the apiary.

To clean the hives, it is recommended to use smoke, as bees are afraid of it (considered an alarm about a fire). In no case should you succumb to aggression. A good beekeeper is a calm, emotionally balanced person who is doing well. Bees feel human nervousness too well and begin to behave restlessly too. You should not constantly touch and excite the bees. For example, it is better to inspect the apiary in the warm season, when the bees are busy collecting honey.

If you seriously decide to do beekeeping, try to organize an apiary according to all the rules. It is recommended to place it near plants with different periods of honey plant. The best place would be a forest area or an orchard.

High humidity has an adverse effect on bees. It is not recommended to place apiaries near water bodies. It is better to place "houses" for bees in a place protected from strong winds. Choose a site with a slight slope on the sunny side. Placing in lowlands and pits is the wrong decision.

To protect the apiary from the wind, you can use a natural hedge of large and densely planted bushes. If this is not possible, you will need to build a fence up to two meters high. Bees are very sensitive to electromagnetic vibrations, so placing an apiary near power plants is a bad idea. It is undesirable that there is another apiary nearby, which can create your competition. The presence of agricultural crops treated with chemicals near the breeding place of bees is not a good sign.

After you decide on the location of the apiary, you will need to prepare the area for the placement of hives, wintering and cell storage, taking into account the number of bee colonies.

The best option for a beginner beekeeper is to purchase 3-4 families of bees. As production expands, their number can gradually increase. It is better to buy insects:

• Spring.
• At the beginning of summer.

With this approach, it will be possible not only to provide for oneself global reserves honey for the winter, but also put up a small amount for sale.

The hives should be positioned with protection from the hot midday sun. On a strong warming, the bees become lethargic and reluctant to collect honey. If there is not enough space, the hives can be placed at a distance of up to a meter from each other with notches in different directions. It is recommended to paint the hives in different colors - blue, blue, white and yellow. To install, you first need to drive in pegs at a level of up to 40 cm from the ground or make special stands. It is advisable to assign a number to each hive in order to quickly navigate in their possessions.

Which hive to choose for a beginner

To place bees in your own apiary, you will need to make or purchase a ready-made hive. In typical structures, the thickness of the bottom and walls should not be less than 50 mm. Thin-walled hives are not a good solution for bees, as it will be difficult for them to maintain an optimal temperature inside.

When choosing, you need Special attention draw on the material. The best hives are made from linden, fir and well-dried aspen. The outer part must be treated with drying oil.

Modern beekeepers use two types of frame hives. We are talking about a vertical hive or a riser and a horizontal hive. The expansion of the nest is carried out from the bottom to the top by installing additional magazines and cases. The riser provides an opportunity to create able-bodied bee colonies. As for the disadvantages of the vertical hive, it has poor stability. It is also very inconvenient to keep spare queens in it.

In the horizontal version (bed), the nest is expanded by installing additional frames. This is the best option for breeding queens.

Rules for collecting honey

In addition to information about the bees and the location of the apiary, a novice businessman needs to fully understand how and when to harvest the honey “harvest”.

You should carefully examine the frame, if it is completely sealed, the honey is considered ripe. Reduction of nests is recommended to start at the end of summer. Unfinished frames should be removed, and small copper frames should be placed away from others. The honey from them will be carried by the bees to the hive. In bee colonies, frames with brood and full-fledged frames with honey remain. You can not remove a couple of frames with bee bread.

It is recommended to leave 2.5 kg of honey for each street of bees. It must remain sealed. If there is not enough top dressing, beekeepers can use sugar syrup. The next inspection should be carried out only in September. At each inspection, the nests are carefully sorted out. When collecting them, you need to take into account the strength of the bee family. The bees should nest tightly around the frames and have enough food.

It is necessary to take good care of bee hives in winter period time - it is good to insulate with straw mats inside and furnish them outside. In spring, the front wall needs to be slightly darkened to prevent direct sun rays.

Video: beekeeping as a business plan, honey business

Honey business is not only a useful and pleasant business. It can also be very profitable if you find the right approach.

According to statistics, most people buy honey from their friends or in big stores. The main problem of private beekeepers is that large retail chains only cooperate with large suppliers. A private trader does not have more than five barrels of honey in a year. Moreover, cooperation with large consumers is not always profitable, since the purchase price may not exceed 30-40 rubles per kilogram.

Packing and selling your own honey to private households is already more real option, but also far from making a normal profit. Experts recommend making a profit from mixed production, that is, from creating your own bee business and additionally buying ready-made honey. This approach will reduce packaging costs.

It is from the sale of honey that Russian beekeepers receive up to 70% of their profits. Other products (wax, propolis, matte milk) do not enjoy such success in the domestic market.

If a Self employed completely far from beekeeping, you should not immediately engage in your own apiary. Experts recommend working for some time in a beekeeping company, for example, as a manager. This will help to understand the concept of this type entrepreneurial activity.

Resale of honey as a raw material is an acceptable option if the monthly turnover exceeds 10 tons. Otherwise, you will not be able to receive more than 30% of income.

As for costs, for packaging alone you will need to purchase:

• Special mixers for blending honey.
• Thermal chambers.
• Other equipment.

To analyze honey for quality, you will need a mini-laboratory. Not every company can afford such expenses. It's better to start small. But it is important to get a license to test honey in small laboratories.

If you're planning on starting your own honey business, get ready for a hefty expense. Raw materials alone will take more than half of all investments made. The total number of families must be at least a hundred in order to pay for production and receive a small income. But as the business develops and families increase, profits will also grow.

As for the personnel, significant funds will not be spent on this. Almost all functions (packer, loader and picker) can be performed by one or two people. Only for the time of collecting honey will you need to hire a couple of workers. But this will not make a serious gap in your budget.

Despite a number of difficulties that beginner beekeepers have to face, the honey business is a profitable business. The demand for this product in the domestic and foreign markets is inexorably striving upwards. Purchase prices are also rising. Today in Russia, the main turnover is provided by amateur beekeepers. But both large and small honey suppliers have good prospects for selling it on the domestic market or exporting it.

For successful business selling honey requires several years of experience and at least 40 thousand dollars seed investment. Beekeepers say that the honey business is very versatile. It is not enough to just invest and wait for the result, you need to really love the bees and be passionate about what you do.

It is better not to rush to invest all the funds at once in a large apiary, especially if there is no experienced beekeeper nearby. For starters, 5-6 hives are enough. Try to take care of the bees throughout the year, study their habits and behaviors.

Another way to gain practical experience is to get a job as an assistant in a large apiary. The position of an assistant will lift the curtain on the secret of success in the honey business.

Selection of bees and hives

First of all, you need to choose the breed of bees. Experts recommend breeding the breed for which the area around the apiary is traditional. You should not buy expensive families from abroad. It is unlikely that they will be able to quickly take root in completely new conditions. Individuals bred by crossing lose productivity up to 40% already from the 3rd generation. In addition, you run the risk of “infecting” the families of neighboring apiaries with foreign blood.

Next, we move on to choosing a hive. Here much depends on whether the beekeeper will move from one place to another. Please note that a bee will be able to bring nectar if it is within a radius of 3 km. Otherwise, it will be completely burned for energy recovery.

In large apiaries, 1/3 of the hives are permanently located, the rest wander from time to time.

Today, the following types of hives are most popular: alpine, multi-hull, sunbed and dadanovsky. Practice shows that the latter type is the most convenient and functional.

Honey Selling Business: Potential Profits

If you decide to engage in trade on an industrial scale, you should think about opening an LLC. You will have to pass the inspection of regulatory authorities and obtain a certificate for the products. Collecting all the documents can take significant financial and time costs. It is much easier to sell products to wholesalers who sell honey abroad and to supermarkets on a stream. Naturally, the profit from wholesale sales will be much more modest. Today, the retail price of one kilogram of honey fluctuates in the range of $10-15, while the wholesale price is $4-5.

On the one hand, beekeepers who own families from 200 to 400 families collect large volumes of honey during the season, but on the other hand, this is not enough to organize deliveries to chain stores.

Particularly enterprising beekeepers sell honey on the Internet. They are unlikely to be able to boast of large sales volumes, however, an additional sales platform will never hurt.

Do not miss:

Honey business risks

Beekeeping is a very risky business. No one can give you guarantees for the successful implementation of the economy. Drought, cold winter, diseases - all these factors in an illiterate beekeeper can lead to the complete extinction of the family.

Relatively recently, another problem has appeared - pesticides. Many farmers do not disdain them, from which bees suffer greatly. If you find out that such work has begun within a radius of 5 km, immediately transport the apiary to a new location. In addition, do not forget about strengthening the immunity of bees.

You can open a specialized honey trade department with an amount of 200 - 300 thousand rubles. What is the advantage of such a department and how can you compete with retail chains, read on.

Special department for honey trade or honey shop is a small outlet selling honey and other bee products, as well as related products: tea and confectionery. Such stores are gaining popularity due to a wide range of honey varieties packaged in different containers (200, 500, 1000 grams, and so on).

The first advantage of such a department over chain stores that also sell packaged honey is that it offers a wide range of honey and related products. Due to the narrow specialization, in such a department you can sell not only more than 10 varieties of honey: North Caucasian, Far Eastern, Kyrgyz honey, and so on, but also other products and goods:

• royal jelly;
• pollen;
• propolis;
• honey cosmetics;
• bee treat;
• container for honey;
• useful literature;
• unique tea, tea sets.

Another advantage of the honey shop: here you can offer honey for testing. After all, this is important for the client, since honey is an expensive commodity, and you want to approach its purchase with special selectivity. You can also think of a unique package "honey as a gift" or give useful literature or a tea set as a gift with a large purchase. The client will appreciate it and become your regular customer.

To organize such a store, a large area is not required - it is enough to rent from 10 to 20 square meters. m. retail space. At the same time, it is not necessary to rent a passable place (such premises are expensive), you can rent a room even in a residential area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe city. In this case, you can count on local residents who will become your regular customers. For example, a room on the first floor of an apartment building may be perfect. Renting such a room will cost between 15 - 30 thousand rubles per month.

An important component of the store is a competent salesperson. A person who does not just stand behind the cash register, but who can suggest, explain and offer the right product to the buyer. He must know absolutely everything about the product: what kind of honey is it, where did it come from, what useful properties does it have, what kind of honey is bitter, what kind of honey is stored longer, and so on. Salesman - key person making the store successful.

There are several options for purchasing goods for your shop.

1. You find wholesale suppliers, of which there are plenty in each region, and buy goods from them (packaged honey). In fact, you will buy the same assortment that is in supermarkets. But that won't be enough. For a greater variety, you will have to work with local apiaries, which can offer you honey in different containers (up to barrels) and at a more attractive price. You can also buy other beekeeping products from them (propolis, pollen, royal jelly, and so on).

If you buy packaged honey from a wholesale supplier, then you only need to have a quality certificate or a declaration of conformity for a batch. But if you take honey from a private person - a beekeeper, then here you will have to request an apiary passport and a certificate from a veterinarian for this batch of honey. In the absence of these documents, during a sudden check of the store, the point of sale, and not the supplier of honey, will suffer.

2. Opening own production, or packaging of honey. You find a room for the workshop, purchase the necessary equipment (packing machine), hire staff and start work. Honey for packaging is purchased from local beekeepers at a low price. And after packing, its price becomes 3-4 times higher. In this case, you get excess profit, as you bypass all intermediary schemes (as is the case with the purchase of honey from wholesale suppliers). Opening your own packaging shop requires additional investments (from 500 thousand rubles). But you will be able to supply products not only to your own retail outlets but also other shops. In fact, you become the same wholesale supplier.

Important advice: before opening a point, study the literature, consult specialists (the same owners of apiaries). Learn to understand honey, to distinguish high-quality honey from low-quality, natural honey from sugar honey. This will help to avoid a lot of losses at the start.

18.11.2016 5

Business in agriculture- a matter that many think about, but not everyone dares to take such a decisive step. Even more questions and doubts arise when it comes to a business like beekeeping: how to organize it, what is needed for this and what is the income. So that investments do not turn out to be empty, it is necessary to think over an action plan in advance and calculate possible risks. Planning in this business, as in any business area, is prerequisite and requirement.

Advantages and disadvantages of beekeeping

The bee business has a lot of positive properties that make it popular among entrepreneurs:

1. Low initial costs.
2. High income with little investment.
3. Opportunity to refuse extra costs for hiring staff in the case of an independent and sole business in the apiary. It is also beneficial to work together with family members.
4. The absence of a single monopolist in the market of finished products.
5. Beekeeping can be seen as independent business and as a side job.
6. To breed bees, it is enough to replenish your knowledge base with minimal ideas about this matter.

Apiary as a business is fraught with some risks that you should always remember:

• growing competition, which is due to the unstable economic situation in many countries of the world, rising unemployment;
• beekeeping business requires the formation of a client base, which is hampered by high prices for finished products.

Business Planning: Key Subtleties

In order for the business not to burn out in the opening working season, all the details should be clearly planned. This will allow you to reach a net profit after the first summer period of beekeeping. Experienced beekeepers are advised to pay attention to the following nuances:

1. The honey business allows you to work alone if you have a country house or a summer cottage with a large plot where you can organize an apiary. If you refuse to conduct business independently, then there is an opportunity to resort to the help of a certain manager. For hire, he will take care of the bees and pump honey. This option of doing business involves additional costs for the salary of this assistant.
2. There is no way to protect yourself from the risk of losing bee colonies. The death of a whole hive can be provoked by substances that pollinate fields. Collecting pollen from plants, bees capture poisonous particles and bring them to their "home". Such a negative situation is always a big financial loss for the beekeeper.
3. Any artificial additives in the real finished product can lead to a complete loss of the customer base. Often unscrupulous beekeepers dilute honey with sugar syrup in order to get more product and earn extra money. Such "fraud" can completely destroy the business.
4. The presence of allergic diseases in a potential beekeeper is an occasion to think about the feasibility of such a business. This is due to the fact that bee stings can provoke anaphylactic shock and even death.
5. The honey selling business will bring good income if you diversify the finished products. In this case, such a task is very difficult, but doable. To get other varieties of honey, it is enough to transport the apiary to places where bees can collect pollen from different plants.
6. Business planning involves calculating costs for several years in advance. This should not be forgotten, as the hives need constant care. You should take care in advance and equip a place for wintering, provide for the costs of feeding, warming, and pest control.
7. The queen bee is able to support a strong colony for two years. After this period, the offspring weakens, a replacement of the uterus is required.
8. Feedback from experienced beekeepers indicates that beekeeping as a business requires a responsible approach: it is important to calculate all costs, risks, prepare a client base, draw up a work plan.

Investment calculation

If a financial opportunities are extremely limited, then a beekeeping business can be started with several bee colonies. You can avoid the cost of paying hired labor if you maintain the apiary yourself. In this case, the help of family members may be required.

Experienced beekeepers say with confidence that for the production scale and good payback for the first working season, about 40 families are needed. This figure will be the basis for calculating capital costs:

The list of additional costs, which may change, should include wages, the purchase of substances for pest control, monthly taxes and deductions. If the apiary does not have a stationary summer base, then the list will have to include the costs of transporting the hives from one place to another. The larger the number of hives, the more funds will be needed to organize a "nomadic" apiary.

In the summer, bees swarm actively. As a result of this process, new families are formed. They need new hives.

Practical beekeeping: basic steps

When all theoretical issues have been resolved, a work plan has been created, preliminary costs have been calculated, you can proceed to the practical part. Breeding bees as a business involves choosing the best place to accommodate a full-fledged apiary. One hive should occupy an area of ​​40 m2. It is advisable to choose a low-lying area, which is no more than a couple of kilometers away from honey plants.

If there are other beekeeping farms nearby, then the apiary should be fenced off from them. To do this, use a solid high fence. To pump more honey, it is necessary to locate the apiary in close proximity to fields with buckwheat, sunflower, acacia, clover, linden.

After choosing a place, the procedure for coordination with the owner of the land and registration with the municipal authority is carried out. Traditionally, in rural areas, these powers are vested in a representative body. The following package of documents is required for the procedure:

• application in the prescribed form;
• statement on the choice of taxation system;
• copy of the passport;
• a receipt certifying the payment of the state fee.

Regardless of the number of hired workers, the owner of the apiary is obliged to pay monthly insurance and pension contributions. The next step is a veterinary examination and registration of the apiary itself. This procedure is carried out on a personal application.

With a successful outcome, the owner of the hives receives a special passport, which may be needed when transporting the hives from one place to another. You should always take it with you when honey is brought to sell.

The bee business will be successful if you choose the right breed of insects for breeding. The optimal ones are those that are typical for the region. They must be purchased before the end of May, but not before April. Important characteristics of a family are:

1. Conditional "performance" of the uterus.
2. Frost and disease resistance.
3. Efficiency and number of working insects in the family.

Attractive breeds for the middle zone with a temperate climate are:

• forest dark;
• gray Caucasian;
• yellow Italian.

In order for the apiary to fully function, it should be equipped with necessary equipment and accessories:

1. Vertical or horizontal hives with frames.
2. Overalls for the beekeeper.
3. Smoker with sawdust.
4. Frame box.
5. Containers for queens.
6. Feeders and drinkers.
7. Table for processing honeycombs and frames.
8. Wax melting device.
9. Sieve.
10. Honey extraction equipment.

Video: honey business.

How much can you earn selling bee products?

In one season, from 30 to 50 kilograms of honey can be obtained from each family of bees. The retail price now averages 300 rubles per kilogram. Simple calculations say that you can earn from 9 to 15 thousand rubles, and from the whole apiary - from 360 to 600 thousand rubles. Additionally, you can sell bee products - wax, propolis, pollen, while earning from 108 to 180 thousand rubles.

Such figures are direct evidence that the first successful beekeeping season will be able to fully cover the costs of organizing an apiary and even bring a considerable net profit. This is possible with ready client base or a good advertising campaign.

If the process of swarming bees was successful, then the number of colonies is growing rapidly. They need to be planted in new hives. On the next year income will multiply: there will be more families, which means there will be more honey. You can also make money by selling families. The average price for them is 5 thousand rubles.

One of the popular food products for sale is honey. He has many useful properties due to which there will always be a demand for it. Therefore, opening a honey business can be a successful start for a novice entrepreneur in his career. About the nuances and subtleties of opening such an enterprise later in the article.

How to start a business

Business on honey is a type of entrepreneurial activity where you can make great money. Before opening a trade in such a product, several issues must be resolved. The most important nuance is the choice of the range of honey for sale and its producers.

The first and easiest way is to buy ready-made honey from wholesalers. There are a lot of them on the market for this product, so there are plenty to choose from. You can make a margin on such a product no more than 50%. If you agree with wholesalers that they will bring honey to the outlet on their own, the entrepreneur can save on logistics costs. Accordingly, the income from such sales will be less, but also worries.

The second option for partnership is the purchase of honey from beekeepers. In this case, the packaging of the mixture in jars and plastic bottles you will need to provide yourself. For this type of product, you can make an extra charge of 100-150% of the cost. But in order to do the packaging of honey yourself, for this you need to purchase special equipment - a dosing unit. Also, for this, it is necessary to hire additional workers and provide them with premises. In fact, this will be considered the opening of an almost full-fledged production.

You can also organize - by opening your own apiary. For one person, you can install no more than 60 hives. In order to organize the production and sale of finished packaged honey, you can also connect with other beekeepers. So you can expand a similar business, get big profit and partially insure against losses. But, opening your own apiary implies having practical experience in the honey business and beekeeping. It is also best for an entrepreneur to live in the countryside near the apiary. Both in summer and in winter, there is more than enough work in the apiary.

To open an owl apiary, you must be prepared for the following expenses:

• Installation of hives - from 3 thousand rubles.
• Purchase of bee families ( good family will give about 5 tons of honey in summer) - from 4.5 thousand rubles.
• Purchase of equipment and special clothing - from 18 thousand rubles.

Starting investment: how much should you invest in a honey selling business?

The size of the initial investment in the honey business will depend on the planned sales volume. The cost of opening a large-scale enterprise can be about 300 thousand rubles. The main costs will be incurred for:

• purchase commercial equipment: from 100 thousand rubles:
• creation of a product range: from 150 thousand rubles;
• advertising creation: from 30 thousand rubles;
• other production and organizational expenses: about 20 thousand rubles.

Before buying honey, the beekeeper needs to check the availability of relevant documents: a passport and a veterinary certificate for a batch of honey. If this is not done, then later you can get into unpleasant situations associated with regulatory authorities.

The most important task of an entrepreneur who has opened a honey business is to find partners - reliable and professional honey producers.

Personnel recruitment

In order to open a business for the purchase of raw honey, its packaging in containers and sale to the final buyer, an entrepreneur needs to hire up to 6 people. In this case, it is better to recruit staff who understand the technology of honey packaging, and also know how to provide appropriate conditions for its storage.

Location

In order to open your own apiary, it is best to choose countryside with suitable climatic conditions for breeding bees. If you plan to organize a honey business for its sale, then you need to choose locations in proximity to the raw material base.

The size of the premises for the filling shop will depend on the purchased equipment. For a medium and small enterprise, an area of ​​​​100 sq.m. will be enough. The main place will be occupied by equipment for packaging raw materials and their storage. In such a room it is very important to create appropriate temperature conditions, as well as maintain optimal size moisture in the region of 60-70%. Warehouses must be equipped with spare storage space. It is logical to create an additional supply of honey for the winter period, when the demand for this product rises. Because honey is food product, the requirements for the organization of the premises for its packaging and storage will be stringent.

What equipment should be purchased?

To organize the packaging of honey, you can purchase the Medofit + installation. It is an ideal combination of good price and High Quality. The cost of such a device can be about 540 thousand rubles. The installation is provided with all the necessary units to run a full cycle of honey packaging. Specifications to which it must comply are the following:

• power: 13.5 kW;
• productivity: 1.% thousand kg/shift;
• container: from 20 to 500 ml.

There are a lot of installations for the production of foundation, it is possible to choose a device with a capacity of 50 kg / h. Its cost will be about 400-800 thousand rubles. For a small business on honey, an option costing about 50 thousand rubles is suitable. The main thing is that such an installation meets the following requirements:

• weight: 11 kg;
• cell size: 5.4 mm;
• matrix material: rubber silicone;
• loss of raw materials: 2-3%;
• cooling: from tap water.

In order to be able to deliver goods to the point of sale, the company must be provided with a car. A supported Gazelle can be purchased for 350 thousand rubles. The purchase of jars and plastic containers will take about 200 thousand rubles.

Effective Marketing

Entrepreneur who decided to open small business on honey it is very difficult to enter the wholesale market. This does not make much sense, since the sale of honey through small outlets will be more efficient.

The most important thing in such a business is the development of a unique brand and its promotion.

Income and expenses

The size of the initial investment for opening a business selling honey will be about 1 million rubles. When selling finished raw materials, the cost of one kg of honey will be about 140 rubles. The real price will largely depend on the region in which honey is sold. If in the high season the sale of this product is provided with daily volumes of about 700 kg per day, then the monthly profit can be 1.368 thousand rubles. Net profit can be about 1,200 thousand rubles. per month. With such indicators, it is possible to ensure the payback of a business on honey in 2-3 months.

Registration

To register a business selling honey, you must specify the OKVED code 52.27.39 (" Retail other foodstuffs).

To open a honey shop, you need to collect a package of the following documents:

• a copy of the document that fixes the registration with the tax organization;
• a copy of the document that confirms the identity of the entrepreneur;
• application for opening a sole proprietorship;
• a document certifying the payment of the state fee.

If such a business is planned to be opened in Moscow, then it is best to choose a simplified taxation system. To sell food products retail chains, the entrepreneur needs to issue a certificate in the organizations of Rosstat and Rospotrebnadzor.

Risks in the honey business

Demand in this type of business is seasonal. The lowest sales figures are usually recorded in the summer. But it is for this season that the most active period of production of raw materials falls.

For entrepreneurs who sell honey, the biggest risk is that they may not have enough raw materials. Therefore, they need to provide themselves with several reliable honey suppliers.