THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3581, 31 October 1922, Page 9

THE APIARY.

B y

J. A.

TALKS FOR BEGINNERS. NO. 22. The subject of tins talk is realisation — the realising of the honey crop. It is, we think, saie to say, that lew enthusiastic beekeepers, who tend their best energies toward the production of a good honey crop, are able to enthuse very much over tire selling of it when it is produced. ' This applies to many other of our primary products. and notably it is the case in connection with tiie fruit crop. In Nelson we ship our fruit across the Straits to Wellington and soil by auction in the fruit marts. Nacuraliy, one would expect that being sold by auction under competition the full market value would be reached. This, however, is not so; the values received are both * irregular and unsatisfactory. The men who produced the fruit have lost touch with it. It is into other hands whose only interest is to make revenue out of it, and this they do to some purpose. We will not follow up the metnods adopted. \\ e only say this, that the fruit growers of Nelson envy the honey producers their organisation. They would give much to be able to organise on similar lines. This, however, tip Jo the present, they have been unable to do. The present sellers have made money out of it. They claim the trade as theirs, and openly say that they are prepared to spend thousands of pounds to defeat any effort to get past them. The fruit growers are not united; they are units acting independently, and as long as they remain thus they are an easy piey. Thus we find that we who produce the fruit, we to whom the fruit belongs, cannot sell our own fruit. We are, by the very force of circumstances, compelled to hand it over to these men to be dealt with as they think fit. The position will be the more readily appreciated when we say that Nelson growers will not average ikl per lb for their fruit, while the consumer is paying 4d, 6d, and 8d on the market for it. 1 mention this position by way of warning to the beekeepers. It is not so very long ago since the honey market was also in a very unsatisfactory way. There was no organisation. The buyer was often the local storekeeper* and it was sold at any old price, rarely, even for the best, reaching more than 4d per lb. Pioneers in the honey industry lost money trying to establish an export market. They realised that without the export market there would very soon be overproduction. It was not until the Honey Producers’ Association was formed and the beekeepers were united in a co-operative effort to establish an export market that anything worth while was accomplished. Now the Honey Producers’ Association is able to hold its own on the London market and to get prices tlmt are pence per lb better than can bo obtained by any other country. New Zealand honey to-day tons the English market easily. Nor is that all, the very fact that we have this export market enables us to obtain full values in the local market as well. There is no need to place a tin more of honey on the local market than it will readily absorb, and consequently with standardisation and a presentable pack it- is possible to satisfy the consumer, the retailer, and the wholesaler, and to give the producer a payable price for his product. The position is ideal, and yet there are a great many beekeepers who do not appreciate the fact, and 1 who, but for the association, would not be able to sell their honey at all. They shelter behind the work of their brother beekeepers and reap a present advantage out of the position created by him, while there very action in doing so tends in the direction of breaking" up his organisation and thus killing their own market. It is a most lamentably shortsighted policy, that makes any beekeeper stand out from the present organisation. As we said in opening this article, primary producers as a rule do not like the marketing end of their business. Well, in beekeeping, thanks to the men who led the way, we have an organisation which lenders it unnecessary to give the matter a thought. We can centre our whole effort on producing and preparing for market—producing an article that will reach the highest grade, and packing it in such a way that it will lose none of its high-grade position through faulty receptacles. Our advice to the beginner in so far as realisation is concerned is to join up with the Honey Producers’ Association, leave the marketing end of the business entirely in their hands, and thus reap all the advantages that are to he obtained through co-operative effort. That is all I can say on this subject to the beginner; but if this should meet the eye of a director of the IT.P.A. I have a suggestion, to make. Recently the fruit-growers, who are united in this much, that they possess a federation, and can speak with one voice, just as the beekeepers can, had occasion to appeal to the Farmers’ Union for help in moving the Government in the direction of helping lhe export of fruit. There was a very fine response, which ended in a large amount, of success in getting the required help. Tt has, however, gone further than this. We have had the privilege of helping a little in return, and our president now enjoys a. seat on the executive of the Farmers’ Union. I want to see Air John, Rentoul there also, and T feel that the advantage would be mutual. The linking up of the primary producers of the Dominion would he all in the right direction. Our president is the “little brother,” and there is room for another chap yet, I feel quite sure.