Climatic factors and a fall in international prices are some of the reasons for the reduction of 50% in the volume exported in 2016 compared to the previous year.
Monday, August 7, 2017
The export value fell from $9 million in 2015 to almost $2.7 million reported in 2016.The volume exported fell from 2.5 million kilos in 2015 to 1.2 million kilos last year. In addition to drought, prices have also been affected by a decline in sales, as other countriessell honey at prices that are more competitive than El Salvador.
Elsalvador.com reports that "...This situation has caused concern in the sector, which is why the Cadena de la Miel Association has initiated a strategy to strengthen the sector and manage its recovery."We have started a process convinced that this strengthening has to be based not only on training producers, but also onconsolidating an organizational structure where other actors in the value chain can be gradually integrated," said the president of the Association, Claudia Ávalos."
The biggest buyer in El Salvador has been the European market, mainly Germany, and the main strategy is to maintain the quality standards of "sweet gold" in order to keep the buyer."
Facilitating credits for producers, as well as encouraging the production and marketing of honey, are some of the plans that the Salvadoran authorities have for the coming years.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) will implement the 2019-2028 Beekeeping Sector Policy, which was developed by the productive sector in the National Beekeeping Table, with financing from Swisscontact and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), through its innovation laboratory BID-LAB, informed an official source.
The increase in the number of beekeepers and hives during 2015 was not enough to avoid a drop in production, especially in Panama Oeste, where 519 fewer gallons were produced.
According to data from the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MIDA),"...
The fall in international prices coupled with a 50% decline in production explains the negative outlook that beekeepers have for this year, 2016.
Reports state that the international price has fallen by up to 55%, as a metric ton of honey went from trading at between $4,000 and $4,200 in 2015 to a range of $2,000 to $2,400 so far this year, reports Prensalibre.com.
The value of honey exports fell by 80% in the first four months of the harvest from 2015 to 2016, and the volume decreased by 70%.
Honey exports in El Salvador fell by 70% between November 2015 and February 2016 compared to the same period previously. The fall has been explained by the effects of drought, but with more intensity, in the low international price of honey, well below the production costs per hundredweight, according to the Center for Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education (Catie) published by Elmundo.sv. Beekeeping cooperatives have received offers of $55 per hundredweight, which contrast with the $125 offered in 2015.
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