Economics of Beekeeping in Alberta

Economics and Competitiveness
Introduction

The beekeeping sector is a vital component of the agricultural industry in Alberta. The major enterprises of the beekeeping industry in Alberta are honey production and pollination. A business analysis of beekeeping operations across the province in recent years have shown that a third enterprise - selling of bees (queens, bee nucs and hives) is emerging.

Costs and returns for the industry have been monitored by the Economics Section of Alberta Agriculture and Forestry since the early 1970s. These studies have been viewed as an important tool for assisting producers in their business decisions and the federal and provincial governments in developing policies and programs for the different farm enterprises. Where information gaps existed in other provinces, results from these studies have served as the basis to fill those gaps.

This publication provides details on the costs and returns for the various beekeeping enterprise activities. The objectives of the publication are:

To determine production costs and returns associated with beekeeping in Alberta.
To establish physical input/output relationships for beekeeping in Alberta.
To provide each study participant with a detailed analysis of his/her beekeeping operation and opportunity to compare the operation with the group averages.
To observe regional differences in costs and returns for beekeeping operations across the province.
To document how variation in size of operation affects net returns.
To provide an up-to-date economic report on the beekeeping in Alberta to assist governments in developing programs and policies for this industry.

For a PDF of the full report for any of the years in the table below, Click on the year.

Economics of Beekeeping in Alberta
Production Year:	2016	2011

For more information about the content of this document, contact Emmanuel Laate.
This document is maintained by Shukun Guan.
This information published to the web on December 15, 2017.