Subtleties of exporting honey to China from Russia. Honey export: how Ukrainian beekeepers captured the EU market and why they may lose it Leading countries in honey production

Bee honey is a healthy product, especially if it is natural. Many beekeepers are engaged in this business. When the product is ready, the question arises of how to sell honey. You need to rely on the sales mechanism to get high profits. It should be borne in mind that the bee product is in demand among ordinary people, as well as cosmetologists and food industry specialists. It is bought at any time of the year.

Principles for selling honey

How to sell honey? The product must be of high quality, otherwise it will not be in demand. It is necessary to comply with the standards for its storage, it is important to collect it correctly. It is necessary to control the condition of the bees in order to increase productivity.

You should communicate with beekeepers and find out about the marketing of the product. In this matter, activity planning is important. It will be much more convenient if the responsibilities are shared. Work must be carried out on advertising, sales and improvement of product quality.

Implementation options

Where to sell honey? There are several options for selling this useful product:

• On the market at retail price.
• Wholesale to enterprises.
• Selling through an online store.
• Sales by advertisement.
• Sales through fairs, exhibitions, festivals.

If you have a lot of friends, it will be easier to distribute the products. Each of these methods really works, you just need to use them correctly. Honey has always been and will be a popular product, so if marketed correctly, there will always be buyers.

Sales points

You can often find advertisements that say: “I will sell honey.” The Russian Federation, like other countries, allows you to sell products in different ways. The beekeeper should consider how much honey is produced per season. When the batch is large, sales should be carried out through a factory or company. Many are selling to other countries.

Where to sell honey to make a profit? An excellent solution would be to open a sales point where customers can purchase different types of products. You can sell goods to cafes, restaurants, confectionery factories, and offices.

Sales rules

How to sell honey profitably? For this purpose, there are special fairs, which are usually visited by many people. It is important to advertise the product beautifully so that it looks attractive. Such events are usually organized in large cities. The Internet can be used for this. It is necessary to place advertisements on special websites. You need to photograph the product, for example, in a bank. Ads should be made and the benefits should be indicated. The information must be true.

You can sell Altai honey or any other type through an online store. Buyers need to be given discounts, which is much better at attracting new customers. You should also remember about another audience - older people. Since they do not use the Internet, it will be easier to find such buyers in the market. Such a proven method as distributing announcements at the entrance, in public transport, also works great.

Benefits of direct selling

How to sell honey directly to people? To do this, products are brought to hospitals, sanatoriums, post offices, markets or work. This option is ideal for amateur beekeepers who have few bees. It will allow you to have regular customers.

Direct selling requires compliance with the following rules:

• Offers must be permanent.
• It is necessary to sell high-quality products that will not differ in consistency or smell from the previous batch.
• Customers care about the appearance of honey, so it is necessary to choose attractive jars.
• All product characteristics must meet the standards.

If there is a lot of glucose in honey, it becomes sugary. Customers do not choose the solid consistency of the products. The product must correspond to the class. Rapeseed honey has small crystals. Flower has a loose state, and honeydew is usually liquid.

Ways to successfully sell a product

The beekeeper must have trade skills:

• Application of advertising for products.
• It is important to know everything about the products so that you can advise customers.
• We need to sell propolis, wax candles, and pollen.
• It is necessary to contact the client.
• It is important to maintain good hygiene.

Stores that sell honey can be the best partners. If the products are of high quality, then no retail outlet will refuse to sell them.

Market mechanisms

It is necessary to take into account the assortment, cost, and properly organize the trading business, taking into account the communication aspect. It is important to have a variety of products. It is advisable to sell goods of different types so that every buyer can find something suitable for themselves.

The cost of the product should be optimal, so you need to monitor the honey market. If you managed to open your own business, then you should think about expanding production. This will require more professionals who can sell honey.

Advertising plays an important role. To attract buyers, you can invite clients to the apiary, show how honey is made, and organize a tasting. Such events influence the increase in sales levels. It is necessary to constantly monitor the quality of the bee product so that it meets the required level.

Intermediary services

You can work through intermediaries - shops, pharmacies, markets. The product must be poured into containers in advance and then packaged. This implementation option has a minus - a small income, since not all stores sell honey accordingly. Moreover, not all sellers can answer buyers’ questions.

Sales to other countries

There are many countries that purchase honey. They usually purchase it as raw material, which, after processing, goes on sale, including abroad. It is profitable to supply products to China, the USA, Germany, Japan, and France.

Selling honey abroad is much more profitable, but difficulties may arise with finding buyers, transportation, and documentation. Now there are special companies that are looking for information about beekeepers and offering their intermediary services. But they take compensation for their work.

Professional beekeepers are constantly looking for new markets. Domestic demand, even if it covers supply, does not please beekeepers with prices. Therefore, we often have to look for markets outside of Russia. During the Soviet Union, domestic beekeepers and beekeepers did not face such a problem, since the state created all the conditions for the honey produced to be purchased at average prices in full. Now, the issue of selling honey to other countries has become of more interest to beekeepers than before.

Selling honey outside of Russia is a complicated matter

Selling domestic honey outside Russia is a more complex matter than selling it within the country. Difficulties arise due to the fact that in order to sell honey outside of Russia, the beekeeper must undergo customs control and related checks, both within the country and abroad. For convenience, we have divided into stages the necessary formalities that need to be completed to sell honey abroad:

• registration as a legal entity or individual entrepreneur in Russia;
• finding potential buyers, determining sales markets, defining rules; customs procedures.

Registration of beekeeping in Russia

Many beekeepers are engaged in the production of honey and other products, such as royal jelly, flower jelly, bee bread, bee venom and others, without forming a legal entity. Most often, beekeepers in one area unite into families and sell honey together. Most often, they find companies that purchase honey on an ongoing basis at wholesale prices and work for them. But it happens that such companies offer low prices, and when their favorite business does not bring any profit, people have to look for other companies and even countries for sale.

If you decide to start selling honey to other countries, then you must do this through a legal entity. If you do not want to create a legal entity, then you can register yourself as an individual entrepreneur. This will help you go through customs procedures, fill out tax returns, and avoid all kinds of tax risks.

To which countries should we sell honey?

After you have decided on the legal fate of your beekeeping farm (and perhaps even before this point), the question arises of finding potential buyers abroad. The Internet will help you here, since it is there that you can find companies that transport beekeeping products on a permanent and professional basis, and contact them with offers of cooperation. Such companies selling beekeeping products to Europe, the USA and Australia exist on the domestic market.

Let's look at the dynamics of production and consumption of beekeeping products in different countries so that you can get an idea of ​​the global picture in this area. China produces the most honey in the world (255 thousand tons per year), but China itself consumes relatively little honey per capita, from which we conclude that this country is also the largest exporter of honey. According to professionals, the quality of Chinese honey is low, so it is exported for confectionery purposes, to create cosmetology products, and is not particularly valued among honey gourmets.

America ranks second in production - 84 thousand tons per year. Compared to China, domestic consumption is just as high, so the United States also has to import honey (66 thousand tons per year).

The top three countries in terms of consumption are Australia, Greece and Germany. Next come France and England. The largest importers of bee products are Japan and Germany, where beekeeping is poorly developed due to the strong industrialization of production and the lack of favorable climatic conditions.

Having seen approximate markets, you can target the markets of the listed countries directly. At the moment, the average price on the world market is 10–15 US dollars per kilogram at retail, and wholesale 4–5 US dollars.

If it seems difficult to find cooperation partners through domestic companies that transport beekeeping products, you can create your own website on the Internet to find buyers through it. Even if you find a permanent partner on the domestic market, we would advise you to create a website describing your apiary, bees, and the features of beekeeping products, so that buyers have an idea of ​​your business.

Since not everyone abroad can have specialists who speak Russian, you can find translators and translate the site into English, because most people in the world currently understand English.

There are customs rules for sending beekeeping products abroad

Customs formalities

Once you have registered your business, found buyers, received your first order and are ready to ship, you should think about the customs rules for sending beekeeping products abroad (you can think about this earlier). To transport honey and other beekeeping products across the Russian border, you need to comply with and check the compliance of your business with the following rules:

• check whether sanitary certificates are needed for your honey (check with the rules of the purchasing country);
• is it possible to transport this amount of honey, are there any limits (check with Russian customs regulations);
• check what customs rules apply to you, whether there are international agreements that apply between Russia and the country buying honey (as well as import restrictions, various embargoes and sanctions).

As you may have noticed yourself, it all depends on which country and in what quantities you want to export honey. At the moment, Russia has an embargo and sanctions on trade with the countries of the European Union and Turkey; this should be taken into account and checked whether it is possible to sell honey to these countries in this case (since the sanctions do not cover all types of products).

This is best done through special companies that deal with customs clearance and consulting in the field of international sales, but if you want to check for yourself, product lists and limits can be found in the public domain on the Internet. Both Russia and the European Union publish similar decisions on their official websites.

After you have determined all the intricacies of passing honey across the Russian border, you need to decide on the transport by which you would like to deliver your products. You can send honey via Russian Post (if the batch is very small and delivery time is not important to you), use air transportation, rail transport, sea vessels or road transport.

Each type of transport has its own characteristics and the easiest way to get acquainted with them is to contact a specialized transportation company, at least in order to obtain up-to-date and reliable information. When using different types of shipment/transportation, different customs control methods will be used - this is also worth taking into account. The most stringent control will be when using air transportation, and on sea vessels it is usually easier.

Beekeeping and the sale of its products is very risky, but with the right approach to it, it is quite a profitable activity. Many beekeepers who do this professionally note that they love their job very much and every winter they cannot wait for the season to go to the apiary. We wish you success in your business!

Due to the sharp fall of the ruble and a decrease in demand within Russia, many beekeepers became interested in the possibility of directly selling honey to China. However, it is worth considering that the export of Russian goods to the Chinese market differs significantly from the supply of similar products to Russian regions. There is a misconception that there is no market for Russian goods in China.

Such conclusions are refuted by living examples.

This year, the Bashkir Beekeeping Research Center entered into a contract with China for the delivery of more than 6,000 tons of products. The total amount of delivery is more than 3 billion rubles.

What explains the high demand for bee products?

China is one of the world's largest honey producers, but most of the products are counterfeit.

Unscrupulous manufacturers add synthetic and chemical components. This leads to the fact that the level of fructose increases significantly in relation to glucose: 2.2 to 1. According to the requirements of the standards, the fructose content in honey should be 38%, and glucose - 31%.

In addition, there are disturbances in the proportions of water, vitamins, microelements, and the amount of yeast exceeds the permissible norm by several times.

The surrogate is sent to the domestic market, and high-quality honey is exported to the countries of the European Union and the USA, where the quality standards are very high. The price of real honey is tens of times higher than the price of fake honey.

Chinese companies engaged in the production of confectionery, medical and cosmetic products are very reluctant to buy low-quality honey. They are ready to buy honey from Russian producers.

Another group of potential buyers are resellers who pass off Russian honey as Chinese honey to end buyers.

The Chinese also show great interest in bee products such as royal jelly and bee venom. Food and medicinal products based on the above components are highly valued.

How can a beekeeper sell honey to China?

Exporting honey to China requires:

1. study of the Chinese market;
2. understanding of pricing;
3. searching for potential buyers;
4. execution of a purchase and sale agreement;
5. insurance and cargo delivery;
6. customs clearance at the Russian border;
7. customs clearance in China after delivery of the goods.

The search for buyers must be carried out in parallel with the promotion of the product to the market.

Honey - from producer to consumer

Required documents

When importing any goods into China, a mandatory procedure is to complete a customs declaration. In some cases, the declaration may be replaced by a transportation document. If a customs declaration is still needed, it is issued as an electronic document in XML format.

To export honey, you will need a certificate confirming the quality of the product. It can be obtained from your local Rospotrebnadzor.

Customs duties are determined according to the rates approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of September 30, 2013.

In addition to the registration procedures, there are several other problems that may arise on the path of a beekeeper who decides to export honey from Russia.

For example:

• marketing support and market promotion;
• logistics (detailed study of sales and delivery issues);
• study of the customs legislation of the People's Republic of China.

It is impossible to solve such issues on your own, especially if you have no experience.

How can we help?

Our company has solid experience in the import-export market of China and Russia. We are the owners of several warehouses and offices in China, we have extensive experience and unique knowledge of the Chinese market; We know the basic requirements and requests of Chinese entrepreneurs.

We offer our clients:

• individual approach;
• qualitative analysis of the sales market;
• office services in China;
• selection of potential Chinese partners;
• 24-hour consultations;
• high level of organization of negotiations;
• legal support of transactions taking into account the requirements of both Russian and Chinese legislation;
• customs clearance services;
• an optimal package of logistics services, including warehousing services and delivery throughout China by special transport;
• qualified assistance in returning export VAT.

The Rus-Custom company offers a service for organizing the export of honey from Russia abroad. Russia today is a major producer of honey, the volume of exports of which to the world market is increasing year by year. The company has worked out the logistics for exporting honey to China, Europe, Egypt, the USA and the CIS countries. The company exports honey from its producers in the south of Russia, in the Republic of Bashkorstan, the Far East and Siberia.

"Rus-Custom" delivers honey abroad using road, rail, sea and air transport, and multimodal transportation routes. By sea transport, the export of honey is carried out by ships of international shipping lines, depending on the recipient country, from the ports of the Black and Azov Seas, St. Petersburg and Far Eastern Russian ports. Road and rail routes for the supply of honey to China pass through the territory of Kazakhstan; honey is sent to European countries through Poland, the Baltic states, Belarus and other transit countries. Honey samples or small batches are delivered by air within 2-7 days.

The complex service of a honey export company includes the following:

• searching for honey buyers abroad;
• organization of the delivery route;

• supply of rolling stock for loading - trucks, containers, wagons, removal from the manufacturer;
• placing an order for sea or air freight;

• full documentary support of delivery - preparation of sales contracts, invoices, waybills;
• registration of export documents - foreign economic contract, invoices, specifications, waybills confirming the transfer of goods to the carrier, transit documents;
• obtaining quality certificates, phytosanitary certificates, certificate of origin;
• conducting laboratory tests and examinations to determine the quality of honey for each batch;
• customs clearance, including filling out and submitting an electronic customs declaration to the customs authority;
• warehouse services, packaging, labeling and repacking services;
• insurance and other related services.

We regularly export monofloral varieties of honey collected from one type of plant - linden, sunflower, acacia, buckwheat, etc., as well as polyfloral varieties - floral, mixed, herbal. The quality of exported honey corresponds to the parameters established by GOST for the content of water, glucose, sucrose, fructose, provitamin A-carotene, vitamins C, B1, B2, B6, E and K, and folic acid.

The company’s specialists provide consultations on what quality of honey is required in a particular country, calculate the cost of delivery and related services, pay customs duties, provide the client with a package of documents for financial reporting and VAT refund, including a document confirming the export of goods outside of Russia .

14 Jul 2016

As far as I know, there is a question of certification and analysis.

many of our farmers use all sorts of medicines - which do not reach Europe

It is precisely because of this that many people give it to resellers. they do cleaning procedures. Maybe stir the honey

The second problem is customs - I have no idea here.

18 Jul 2016

Tell me, maybe someone knows or has been involved in selling honey abroad. I have my own honey, but I don’t know how to contact Polish or Romanian buyers, I don’t want to sell it to our Ukrainian resellers for next to nothing, maybe they buy it somewhere at the border? Thank you!

Their honey may be cheaper. A Polish friend of mine has an apiary, so her honey price is cheaper than ours in Ukraine.

02 Sep 2016

everything is stored in the bones, varieties, and wholesale and fragments.
When given to wholesalers/companies, the stench does not purify the honey, the stench homogenizes it (to mix everything in one big barrel), from one type. Perhaps there will be only a couple of liters of excess antibiotics in 20 tons of different apiaries, then it won’t be necessary.. but they can’t clean it up.. they can’t stop the stench.. stop the analysis - either antibiotics or not.. like conscientious beekeepers honey is exported to Europe, and where the antibiotic is - either to Mother Rus', or to Belarus, the Baltic states (more commonly) or China... or it is simply sold locally on the market..
Customs is not a big problem. Find out what the company and local beekeeper exports. It’s easier for companies - they can immediately stop all analyses, and since the variety of analyzes (usually per batch, no matter which batch is 3 tons or 20) has become, then the beekeeper will be more expensive, lower firms.
Veterinary approval is required, and EUR1 certificate is also required, as well as documents for the product, and, without registration, documents for breeding. Also, there may be a need for further research, perhaps, on antibiotics - from two laboratories in Ukraine - in Kiev and Lviv, it seems that Lvivskaya is better off working in the future, otherwise ..or there is a representative office of Intertek in Odessa, where you can also contact specialists collect samples and send them to Nimechchina, then you will have an Intertek certificate, with which, if you think the results are consistent, do not slow down at the border, as much as possible for the EU.
....
That's it in a nutshell.. What is the nutrition - ask. I don’t know everything, but if I need some knowledge, I’ll share this.

05 Sep 2016

Not at any time! In principle, honey can be “processed” into beer, whiskey, etc. or "reprocess" to export, and then again "reprocess" back and sell.. no.. perhaps you simply were not aware of the specifics of this product. And honey concentrate... I didn’t feel that way... even though I came up with something like that, it’s not honey anymore, but a chemical product.

How can you make it easier to export... you can document honey not as honey, but rather as syrup, or food for food... or a substance for decorative honey with a sweet smell, more pure... you can fantasize richly, but from chi This will pass on the border without “nitpicking”, which you can already try in your own practice.

28 Jan 2017

Natural honey - UKTZED code 0409000000.
-Veterinary control: veterinary certificate

(Veterinary Medicine Service, issued upon presentation of the apiary’s veterinary and sanitary passport issued by the district/city department of veterinary medicine to the apiary itself + a quality certificate issued by the manufacturer/apiary.). The veterinary certificate must indicate the production facility that produced the honey, as well as the specific recipient of the honey for this export operation.

The labeling of the cargo indicates the honey producer (and this information must naturally coincide with the veterinary certificate)

An analysis in a veterinary laboratory is required.

The manufacturing enterprise must be registered in the GOSPOTREBSLUSHBE register as an exporter to certain countries; if not, then it is necessary to obtain a one-time permit.

Radiological control (ecology service of internal customs or checkpoint, by affixing a stamp to shipping documents)

If export is carried out from an area of ​​radioactive contamination, a certificate for the content of radioactive substances is required (MoH, Ministry of Agrarian Policy, State Forestry Committee of Ukraine) based on PKMU No. 1610 dated 10.26.2000.

General customs requirements:

accreditation at the customs of foreign trade participants,

foreign economic contract,

invoice + permits listed above.

Customs control consists of checking a package of documents for compliance with customs registration rules and legislation, customs clearance of a consignment of cargo and customs inspection to ensure that the actual condition of the cargo corresponds to that stated in the documents. A cargo customs declaration is prepared.