Profitableness and perspective of the apiculture in north-eastern bulgaria

Abstract

The trends in the change of the profitability of Bulgarian beekeeping starting from the country’s accession to the European Union (EU) in 2007 to the present 2020, are being studied, depending on the changes in the market price of honey and its prime cost. The survey was conducted among selected apiaries in North-eastern Bulgaria. It has been found that they achieve a small net profit when selling conventional honey in the organizational markets – EUR 3.78 kg-1. The realization of organic honey as a raw material in the organizational markets is not profitable for them. The apiaries have a net profit of EUR 7.98 kg-1 for conventional and EUR 7.91 kg-1 for organic honey, with distribution to a consumer market sale. The apiaries in Ruse district achieve 10.26% profitability of turnover in sales on conventional consumer markets, 8.83% in organic consumer markets and 8.2% in organizational conventional markets. Improving their profitability requires: 1) marketing strategies, through regional and cross-sectoral integration; 2) the production of royal jelly, pollen and propolis with high added value; 3) introduction of new technologies, increase in labour productivity, and 4) state subsidies to a hive for ecosystem pollination service.