Crops in Crisis: Montana Honeybees

When you’re baking pumpkin pie this fall, you probably won’t be thinking much about bees. But maybe you should be. One out of every three bites of food that the average American eats either depends upon or significantly benefits from pollination by honeybees. A Cornell University study estimates that honeybees add $14.6 billion in value to U.S. agriculture.

However, low-priced imports of honey from Argentina and China are putting U.S. beekeepers out of business, and with them the bees that they rent out to produce farmers.

“A roller coaster ride,” is how Mark Jensen of Smoot Honey in Power, Montana describes the past ten years. Prices have fluctuated up and down from 60¢ per pound to as much as $1.50 per pound. To make a profit, Jensen must make a minimum of 85¢ per pound of honey. Other beekeepers in Montana require as much as a dollar per pound just to break even.

“Guys have gone out of business when we get a drop in honey prices,” Jensen said.

In 2001, the U.S. Department of Commerce ruled that Chinese and Argentine importers were illegally selling honey at prices below the cost to produce it, a practice called “dumping.” In response, the U.S. began charging these companies high duties, which significantly reduced honey imports from Argentina and China from $65 million in 2000 to just over $25 million in 2002. But, by 2005 companies had found loopholes in the law, and that number crept back up to $51.6 million.

In August 2006, Congress passed a provision to close one of the loopholes, but as of yet, there has been little impact on honey prices.

“There‚ just enough beekeepers that need immediate operating funds,” Jensen explained. “And so the honey packers are picking up the stuff that guys are willing to get rid of cheap because they need the cash. That‚ our theory, but who knows?”

FootNotes:

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Schlachte, Barry. ‚A Sticky Situation; Disputes, Pricing, Parasites Pushing Beekeepers into other Professions.” Grand Forks Herald. Navasota, Texas, July 16 2001.