Economic Efficiency of Beekeeping in Croatia

Croatia has ideal ecological and climatic conditions for beekeeping. Beekeeping production is exclusively organized by family households and the production is measured by the amount of honey produced. The Croatian National Statistics Department reported that in 2005 there were 2,658 beekeepers in Croatia, 245,759 of honeybee colonies and 92.46 honeybee colonies per beekeeper. Honey production per hive was 15.9 kilos. There are three categories of beekeepers: hobby beekeepers, full-time beekeepers and part-time beekeepers. Most frequently, they use Langstroth-Root and Albert- Znidersic hives. Only one third of beekeepers migrate their hives. The marketing of honey products is not well organized and the honey consumption per citizen is low. However, honey is one of rare agricultural products, where Croatia has reached self-sufficiency. Namely, honey exported in the year 2005 was 186 thousand kilos, whereas honey import in the same year was 41 thousand kilos. Since Croatia is most likely to become an EU member in the near future, it is important to recognize the economic parameters of beekeeping production within Croatian economy. Data on economic parameters of beekeeping production in Croatia is very scarce and fragmented. Therefore, the aim of this investigation was to calculate basic economic parameters in Croatian beekeeping and to assess its economic strength. The primary assumption of this study was that the number of hives is the most important efficiency factor regarding productivity and profitability of beekeeping production. We further assumed that beekeepers with less than 50 hives cannot meet minimal conditions regarding these economic parameters