Analytical assessment of honey production and consumption in Ukraine

Abstract

The article researched the analytical assessment of honey production and consumption in Ukraine. Due to its favorable geogra-phical location and ability to produce high-quality beekeeping products, Ukraine is one of the most potent beekeeping countries in the world for both domestic consumption and export. To achieve the goal of the paper, general scientific methods of research, such as empirical, theoretical, and statistical, were used. There was conducted A review of scientific sources and publications related to the field of beekeeping. The article analyzes the honey market, i.e., scrutinizes the dynamics of the number of bee colonies, dynamics of honey production, the productivity of honey production from 1 bee colony in farms of all categories, enterprises, and households: dynamics of honey sales volume and average sales prices. Market analysis for the recent period includes the evaluation of the war's influence on the branch. The war in the country affects all branches of production, and beekeeping is no exception. There is observed destruction of apiaries and the impossibility of their maintenance in the occupied territories or where active hostilities occur. Damage caused by the war needs large sums of money to restore the beekeeping branch. Honey production is mainly concentrated in households (99% in 2022), and small part of its production belongs to enterprises (1% in 2022). Profitability from honey production in farm enterprises accounted for 3.3% in 2020. There could be an observed decrease since 2000, analyzing the dynamics of honey sales. In 2022, prices for honey increased and accounted for 5330 UAH per center, which is 1.6 times higher than in 2020. In the paper, a regression model was built, where the dependence of the average sales prices of honey from the quantity of sold honey was evaluated. Results confirmed the linkage between signs, i.e., the increase of 1 centner of the quantity of sold honey leads to the average sales prices decreasing by 0.29 UAH per centner. A seasonal factor could be observed, because the volume of sales is increasing and prices for agricultural products are decreasing. Special attention was paid to the production of organic honey, as Ukraine has a significant export potential for this product. Considering the favorable situation in the world market, where the price and demand for such honey is growing on the world market, Ukrainian producers will be able to increase the efficiency of their activities. However, organic beekeeping may also present production and market risks that must be minimized. Keywords: honey, beekeeping, market, production, Ukraine, quality, competitiveness, organic products.