Beekeeper’ income volatility. Case study: beekeeping exploitations in Romania during the 1962 to 2011

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to determine the impact of honey yield variation on beekeepers revenue in Romania. The period for which investigations were carried out is 50 years to highlight the influence of a centralized economy and then of a under development market economy on the financial situation of beekeepers. The main research tools used were the indices of elasticity of prices and incomes based on the honey offer and on the consumer’s incomes. Results indicate a diminution in production capacity coupled with a significant increase in yield average. It was also revealed a significant volatility in the Romanian beekeepers revenues correlated with a low elasticity of honey prices compared with the dynamics of consumer’s incomes and with the total honey yield. During the 1962 to 2011 in Romania the incomes from honey production were by 43,3 millions with variations from 18,1 millions $ between the 1962 to 1966 to 109,3 millions $ between the 2007 to 2011. Thus, the increase of incomes from honey production was of 502.7 % while the honey yield increased by 183,8%.