Economic potential for the development of individual beekeeping farms, and the industry as a whole, on the example of the GEF SGP project to develop the economic attractiveness of beekeeping in the Fergana region

The project is supported by the Small Grants Program of the Global Environment Facility ( GEF SGP) in Uzbekistan.

Annotation

The main purpose of the analysis is to show how the current socio-economic results of the activities of beekeeping household farms participating in the GEF SGP project in the Fergana region can be improved and extended to other beekeeping farms in the country.

This analysis is not intended to be a business plan for entering the beekeeping business, but merely analyzes the prospects for improving the economic performance of existing beekeepers. Although the general calculation shows the minimum required to start beekeeping in the amount of 26.2 million soums, consisting of the purchase of at least 20 hives and 40 bee colonies (6 and 9 million soums, respectively), and 11.2 million soums of operating expenses per season. Approximate revenue is 40 million UZS, with a return on initial investment in 2 seasons.

The data for this analysis are obtained from beekeepers participating in the project who are engaged in backyard beekeeping. At the beginning of 2022, the number of bee colonies among the participants was 100-120 hives on average per farm. The average revenue from the sale of gross output (mainly honey) per 100 families is 100,000,000-110,000,000 soums, or about 10 thousand US dollars. On average, in an apiary with 100 hives, the variable cost of honey production is 59,620,000 UZS. Annual fixed costs averaged 15,000,000 sum.

The paper analyzes the cost structure, profitability and net profit from beekeeping, and their changes in accordance with changes in the approach to the production of additional types of beekeeping products, i.e. diversification of the production focus.

Introduction

Analyzing the domestic and foreign markets of beekeeping products, it should be noted that in the Republic of Uzbekistan, according to the Society of Beekeepers, 25.1 thousand tons of honey is produced per year. Officially, 19,300 people work in this area, which contain 1.1 million bee colonies. The consumption of honey per capita in Uzbekistan has reached 700 grams per year, which is comparable to that in Europe.

Fergana region (the territory where this project is being implemented) is one of the largest regions of Uzbekistan. The population of the region exceeds 3.6 million people, which causes an excess of labor resources and the presence of many social problems associated with the employment of the population. Agriculture is one of the main areas of activity of people living in the region.

The presence of diverse landscapes with a diverse flora allows the population to engage in beekeeping, providing as an additional, and sometimes the main source of income in the economy. According to the Society of beekeepers in the Fergana region, more than 2.5 thousand households are engaged in household beekeeping, with up to 50 families in apiaries. But there are also large beekeeping farms that have up to 400 bee colonies on their farm.

Beekeeping differs from other industries in that it requires a relatively low investment capital and labor force, which makes it possible to ensure self-employment of people.

Initially, beekeeping was aimed at meeting the needs for honey consumption, then it became a source of income and the most important type of agricultural production, which clearly demonstrates the relevance of the problem of beekeeping development.

The beekeeping industry has two obvious positive features: 1) the creation of beekeeping products valuable for health and demanded by the market: honey, bee venom, perga and propolis; 2) as well as socio-economic significance - employment and providing a source of income for a large number of the rural population. Unfortunately, one of the most important strengths of this industry is the service of pollination of plants, which is not integrated into the market chains of pricing of final crop products, is weakly or almost nil reflected in the economic value of beekeepers' services, and, as a result, does not fully reveal its development potential. Agriculture.

The project "Beekeeping Development in the Ferghana Region" aims to increase the profitability of beekeeping farms through training, the application of knowledge on the technology of growing bees and colony care, and the development of additional sources of income for beekeepers.

The main conclusion of the analysis and the project, and its main message for the subsequent development of beekeeping farms, is the idea of diversifying the products of bee farms, the absence of beekeepers ignoring additional sources of income from auxiliary beekeeping products, namely the production of bags, royal jelly and bee venom . Such diversification leads to a significant increase in the profitability of bee farms, and hence the sustainability of bee farms, improve their competitiveness, and, among other things, increase the volume of related services - pollination, which increases the profitability of crop production in general.

Material and method

The main material for the analysis was the data obtained from beekeepers during personal conversations. In addition to these data, prices for bee products in the local market were used. For ease of understanding, in economic calculations, the exchange rate of the sum in relation to the dollar. The US is accepted in the amount of 1 US dollar is equal to 11450 soums.

The cost-benefit analysis used figures from 22 practicing beekeepers participating in the project. Each of them has from 50 to 100 hives in his personal household. Conventionally, we divided them into 3 groups

Table 1. Categorization of project farms by the number of bee colonies.

A simple categorization already gives some idea of the indicators of success. As can be seen from the table, all large beekeeping farms use all types of income generation, while smaller farms concentrate only on the sale of honey. Whether diversification of income sources is the cause of farms becoming more successful and, as a result, larger is a matter for reflection. In our opinion, this is an unconditional factor and indicator of the correctness of the conclusions indicated in this analysis.

For the purposes of analysis per 100 hives, the following indicators were used:

• The value of products obtained as a result of the activities of the beekeeping - Gross Beekeeper Product (GBP)
• Total Costs (TC) = Total Variable Costs + Fixed Costs;
• Gross income (GI) = WFP-OR;
• Relative profit, profitability = GI / TC

Calculations are made for a hive with 10 frames, which is taken as one family.

The productivity of one family in the season of 2022 was on average 10-12 kg of honey. For calculations, a more conservative figure was taken - 10 kg.

Based on this, for 100 hives, the amount of honey obtained is approximately 1,000 kg. With a wholesale purchase price of 100,000 soums for 1 kg of honey, the total gross output of a beekeeper (GBP 1) from honey is 100,000,000 (one hundred million) soums, or 8,734 dollars. USA.

Below is information on the costs of beekeeping. The gradation into variables and constants is conditional.

Here is the information on variable costs:

Table No. 2. Variable costs in the apiary

Here are the fixed cost calculations:

Table No. 3. Calculations of depreciation costs in apiaries.

Table No. 4. Fixed costs in apiaries

The total costs incurred to obtain the gross product are equal to the costs of the apiary and are an important criterion for assessing the success of the apiary.

Income from the sale of honey at a price of 100,000 soums per 1 kg is 100,000,000 (one hundred million) soums; The total cost of an apiary with 100 beehives is 74,620,000 UZS.

Gross Income (GI 1) = Gross product of the beekeeper (GBP 1) - total expenses (TC)

GI 1= 100,000,000 – 74,620,000= 25,380,000 UZS

Based on these calculations, the profitability of the apiary (P) = GI / GBP

P 1 = 25,380,000 / 100,000,000 = 0.25

This means that for every 1 soum spent, 25 tiyin were received . The cost (C) of 1 kg of honey obtained in the mountains is 74,620 soums

The results of calculations are shown above, when the beekeeper receives income only from the sale of honey. The meaning and purpose of the project was to actively promote in practice, so that the project participants would receive income from several types of beekeeping products, and not focus solely on the sale of honey.

In addition to honey, additional products from which it is possible to receive additional income are bags (young bee colonies), mother liquors, propolis, pollen and beeswax. Each of these products can bring a fairly significant income for the beekeeper. Table 5 below shows the incremental revenue figures for these products, given that conservative volume figures for each product have been used in the calculations.

Table No. 5. Volume and income from the sale of additional bee products per season.

As part of the project, we worked out a simple way to collect bee venom. The numbers in Table 5 for the poison are highlighted in red due to the fact that the poison cannot be sold in Uzbekistan, because there are no certified laboratories, which we wrote about in our previous article [1]. The opening of certifying labs would open the way for additional product to market from beekeepers, and would also help to increase beekeepers' income diversification.

bags , mother liquors are also produced and sold, another figure is formed:

GBP 2 = 100,000,000 + 34,000,000 = 134,000,000 sum;

At the same time, the total costs remain unchanged. A different figure of income changes other economic indicators of beekeeping.

Gross Income (GI) = Gross Beekeeper Product (GBP) - Total Costs (TC)

GI 2 = 134,000,000 -74,620,000 = 59,380,000 sum,

compared to the amount of 25,380,000 UZS when selling only honey.

Gross profit per family (hive) increases by 34% and amounts to 1,340,000 UZS, and net profit per hive is now 593,800 UZS against 253,800 UZS from honey.

The profitability of production also increases

P = GI / GBP

P = 59,380,000 / 134,000,000 = 0.44

and now it is 44%, i.e. for every 1 soum spent, the beekeeper receives 44 tiyin profits against 25 tiyin profits from selling only honey.

The analysis shows that by diversifying the products of beekeeping sales, and including all possible products, and not just honey, in the sales list, without changing the overall picture of costs, the beekeeper can increase his net profit by 2.3 times (44% versus 25% with selling only honey).

This idea is promoted by the GEF SGP funded project to improve the economic efficiency of beekeeping – sell all possible beekeeping products to achieve better economic results.

Table 6 summarizes the comparison of economic performance of equivalent apiaries, which are differently oriented towards the production and sale of products: a comparison is made where one apiary produces and prepares for sale only honey, another apiary produces and sells honey and other additional products.

Table No. 6. Comparison of economic indicators of an apiary for the production and sale of honey and an apiary for the sale of all bee products.

Conclusions and recommendations

Summarizing the above data, it is safe to recommend to any beekeeper to diversify the products received and sold from the bee farm as much as possible in order to increase the economic attractiveness of the business.

Of course, in many respects the economic results depend on the individual approach of each beekeeper . But the general recommendation of this article remains true - get and sell not only honey, but also all other possible bee farm products. Nothing more than a little more additional knowledge is required from the beekeeper to get these additional profits. In fact, increasing the educational and professional potential of beekeepers will have an enormous economic and social effect for each region and the country as a whole.

To get this additional income, you need to learn:

1. properly care for bee colonies, in order to obtain strong families, on the basis of which bags can be created without harm to the family ;
2. correctly create and develop queen cells;
3. collect royal jelly, wax, pollen, perga and other products.

Separately, it should be noted the high potential for the production of bee venom, which now remains impossible to integrate into the market due to the lack of certification.

bag export market also has great potential . Uzbekistan exports up to 311 thousand bags per year [2]. The largest importer of bags at the moment is Russia, where there are an average of up to 3 million bee colonies, of which 20% die in the winter, 5% from pesticide poisoning, 5% are utilized during the season. According to these figures, the Russian market annually consumes from 900,000 to 1 million bags. Fergana region exports to Russia more than 70 thousand packet workers , Namangan about 200 thousand packers . Training and production of bags by our beekeepers can use the existing potential of the Russian market, as well as the markets of other countries. Bringing the volume of exports of bags to 1 million can bring more than 30 million dollars into the country. The same is true for other bee products.

On the one hand, there is a market - there is a need and demand that can potentially be met through increased domestic production. However, the market dictates its own conditions, which we often cannot satisfy. The first of the conditions is a guarantee of product safety. So, for example, the main importer of our bees, Russia, fearing an epidemic of bee diseases that the tropilaelaps mite , which infected almost all of Uzbekistan in the summer of 2022, would enter the country , actually stopped imports without providing security guarantees.

To fully meet the requirements of the market, it is necessary:

• to make delivery without cellular packages that correspond to the state. standards, which will dramatically reduce the number of sick bees.
• improve the quality of bee material and carry out its certification;
• to carry out veterinary checks of sent packages for all batches and have accompanying documents;
• put a stamp on each package with information about who formed it, from which apiary, and what breed, date of packaging;
• Establish direct deliveries without intermediaries;
• Send all trucks with packages accompanied by a representative of the supplier;

And this is not the whole list of consumer requirements in this market. This list clearly demonstrates the importance of building a market infrastructure for bee products.

For the sale of honey, propolis, pollen, royal jelly, specialized laboratories are needed, the certificates of which will attest to the compliance of the product with standards for the pharmaceutical, perfumery and food industries.

Experts believe that the production of honey and other bee products in the republic can grow significantly if measures are taken to develop beekeeping and form a market infrastructure for bee products.

The formation of such an infrastructure with the help of the state, as well as the widespread improvement of the professional level of beekeepers, can give a great impetus to the development of beekeeping in the country, increase the production of beekeeping products, and increase the economic efficiency of individual farms and the industry as a whole.

Head of the project "Improving the economic efficiency of beekeeping in the Fergana region", supported by the GEF SGP

M. Aliyev

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