Beekeeping is not only a traditional animal husbandry industry but also a distinctive livestock industry. Beekeeping plays a vital role in promoting the development of green agricultural production, maintaining natural ecological diversity, meeting consumers’ needs for a better life, and facilitating rural industrial revitalization.
In 1978, the household contract responsibility system was implemented in rural China, fully unleashing farmers’ enthusiasm for production. In 1985, the state permitted multi-channel operations and free pricing policies for bee products such as honey and royal jelly, further enhancing farmers’ enthusiasm for beekeeping production. The beekeeping industry in China has achieved rapid development and has become the leading country in the production and export of bee products. In 2001, China joined the WTO, pushing the production and export of bee products onto the international competition stage in a more comprehensive manner. This article reviews the evolution of China’s bee product circulation system and its policies, analyzes the characteristics and main existing problems of China’s bee product circulation, and proposes coping strategies for China’s bee product circulation.
1. The Evolution Process of China’s Bee Product Circulation System
1.1 The Transition Period from Free Purchase and Sale to Government Monopoly (1949 – 1952)
In 1949, the national bee colony rearing volume was 500,000 colonies, and the honey output was 8,000 tons. At this stage, honey was freely purchased and sold, and the business entities were both private and state-owned. For instance, in Beijing, there were mainly Li Linyuan Beekeeping Farm, Zhicheng Beekeeping Farm, and Yongfeng Honey Shop.
1.2 The Period of Planned Management by Supply and Marketing Cooperatives and Commercial Departments (1953 – 1982)
During the socialist transformation process, socialist transformation was carried out on honey distributors. For example, Zhicheng Beekeeping Farm, Wanhe Beekeeping Farm, and Yongfeng Honey Shop were publicly-privately jointly operated to establish Beijing Honey and Wax Processing Factory, which is now Beijing Baihua Bee Industry Technology Co., Ltd. Through socialist transformation, beekeeping production and operation were mainly dominated by state-owned and collective beekeeping farms, and a number of state-owned beekeeping farms with bee colony rearing volumes of over 1,000 colonies emerged, such as Jiangxi Provincial Bee Breeding Farm, Zhejiang Hangzhou Milk Company Beekeeping Farm, and Hubei Jinshui Farm Beekeeping Farm. The state strengthened the management of the honey market and implemented planned purchase, acquisition, and distribution of bee products. Since 1954, honey has been managed as a second-class material by the state and is uniformly operated by commercial departments and supply and marketing cooperatives. In the 1950s, honey was highly popular in the Chinese market, with supply falling short of demand. It was even difficult to purchase bottled honey in the market. For example, the bottled milk vetch honey produced by Shanghai Guanshengyuan was sold well across the country and deeply loved by consumers.
1.3 The Period of Circulation Marketization Reform (1983 – )
In 1983, the state adjusted the purchase and sale of honey from unified purchase and sale by commercial departments to negotiated purchase and sale, allowing multi-channel operations by state-owned, collective, and individual entities. In 1986, the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade decided to implement export license management for royal jelly. In 1990, the state canceled the policy subsidy for exported honey, further strengthening the competition mechanism in honey circulation and operation. In 1993, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation included honey and fresh royal jelly as actively quota-managed commodities. The countries with active quotas for honey were Japan; for fresh royal jelly, the countries included Japan, the European Union, and the United States. Some honey export enterprises, disregarding the overall interests of the country and the industry, offered very low quotations for honey exports, seriously disrupting the order of the honey market. For this reason, with the approval of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the China Chamber of Commerce of Foodstuffs and Native Produce Import and Export began to implement honey export quota bidding management in 1994. In 1995, based on the “Interim Measures for the Management of Export Commodities,” “Interim Measures for the Paid Bidding of Export Commodity Quotas,” and “Implementation Measures for the Rules of Origin of the People’s Republic of China,” the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation issued the “Interim Measures for the Export of Honey to the United States” and organized and implemented the paid bidding for honey export quotas to the United States. China officially joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) on December 11, 2001. In 2002, China canceled the export quota management for honey and royal jelly.
2. Characteristics of China’s Bee Product Circulation
2.1 High Circulation Risk of Bee Products
From an economic perspective, different asset specificity exists in the processes of beekeeping production, bee product circulation, bee product processing, and bee product consumption. The asset specificity of beekeeping production mainly refers to the cost investment in the process of bee colony rearing. Therefore, when there is difficulty in selling honey in the market, there may be situations where no one operates the beekeeping farm. Bee farm-produced bee products are prone to deterioration. For example, low-concentration honey is prone to fermentation, and fresh royal jelly and fresh bee pollen are prone to deterioration. Therefore, some bee farms have invested in building bee product processing factories, but due to the seasonal nature of bee farm production of bee products, the idle rate of processing equipment is very high.
2.2 Strong Volatility in Bee Product Transactions
As the bee product circulation system has shifted from unified purchase and sale by commercial departments to negotiated purchase and sale, the original main channels of bee product supply and marketing have disintegrated, and new bee product circulation channels need to be reconstructed and transformed, making the bee product market more prone to fluctuations. Additionally, bee products have the dual characteristics of both ordinary food and health food, determining the differences and instabilities in bee product circulation.
2.3 Decentralization of Bee Product Circulation
Currently, most beekeeping farms operate as individual households, with small production scales and relatively low production capacity levels. The number of beekeeping households engaged in beekeeping production far exceeds the number of bee product circulation intermediaries. To counterbalance the monopolistic position of bee product circulation intermediaries and safeguard their own interests, beekeeping households must establish beekeeping cooperatives to address the contradiction between small-scale beekeeping production and the large bee product market.
3. Circulation Entities of Bee Products
China’s bee product circulation entities have undergone tortuous evolution. In the era of the planned economy, bee products were uniformly purchased and sold by commercial departments, and the marketing entities were very single. Currently, China’s bee product circulation has formed a new diversified pattern.
3.1 Beekeepers
Most beekeepers are engaged in the production of raw materials for bee products and also sell bee products such as honey, royal jelly, and bee pollen produced by themselves. They are at the primary stage of sales in bee product circulation. Beekeepers’ sales of bee products have the following characteristics: (1) The quantity of bee products sold at one time is small, increasing the transaction cost of bee products; (2) There is a gap in mastering market information and sales capabilities; (3) The production season of bee products is relatively concentrated, resulting in easy price fluctuations of bee products and relatively large market risks.
3.2 Intermediaries
Intermediaries play a very important role in China’s bee product circulation and can be subdivided into bee product wholesalers, bee product agents, and bee product retailers. Bee product wholesalers are mainly engaged in the purchase and sale of bee products and obtain profits through the purchase and sale price difference of bee products; Bee product agents refer to those entrusted to purchase bee products on behalf of others and earn profits by collecting handling fees; Bee product retailers mainly refer to bee product specialty stores, bee product counters set up in supermarkets, and online sales.
3.3 Professional Cooperative Organizations of Beekeepers
Professional cooperative organizations of beekeepers are part of farmers’ professional cooperative organizations and are a new type of circulation entity that has emerged in China’s rural areas in recent years. Compared with individual beekeepers, they have the following advantages: First, it is conducive to achieving the scale effect of bee product operations, breaking through the bottleneck constraints of small-scale production by individual beekeepers, and enhancing the internal driving force for the development of the bee product market; Second, it reduces transaction costs, including pre-transaction and post-transaction costs such as drafting contracts, negotiations, transactions, and performance supervision; Third, it reduces the market risks of bee products. Compared to individual beekeepers, professional cooperative organizations of beekeepers can effectively resolve the market risks of bee product operations and better guide beekeepers to enter the market orderly.
4. Main Problems in China’s Bee Product Circulation
4.1 Low Degree of Organization of Bee Product Circulation Entities
Modern circulation entities should have the following conditions: (1) Socialized division of labor in the production, supply, and marketing chain; (2) Large-scale and standardized production; (3) The establishment of their own market innovation system. Judging from the current development status, China’s bee product management is still dominated by self-production and self-sale, with insufficient detailed division of labor in production, supply, and marketing, affecting the globalization and industrialization process of China’s bee industry.
4.2 Imperfect Bee Product Market System and Market Mechanism
China’s bee product market has few and small service organizations, and the level of beekeeping industrialization is low, while at the same time, service organizations lack development market space; The trading order is poor, mainly manifested in the inability of business entities to monitor the quality of bee products, excessive transaction costs, and difficult functioning of transaction functions; The traditional spot transaction method of small individual households directly affects the large-scale and industrialization of China’s bee product circulation.
4.3 Low Globalization Level of Bee Product Business Entities
The factors determining the global competitiveness and globalization level of the bee industry include: First, the number and technical level of leading enterprises in the bee industry; Second, the innovation capacity of the bee industry and the market share of bee products; Third, the related comprehensive service functions of the bee industry. Generally speaking, most of China’s bee industry business entities are family enterprises. A few have started from bee breeding and grown into well-known enterprises through original accumulation, such as Wang’s Group and Huiren Group. To meet the challenges of globalized operation and promote the globalization of China’s bee products, it is necessary to rely on globalized business entities, allocate resources according to the requirements of the global market, and carry out marketing. At the same time, it is necessary to build a globalized information trading platform for bee products to solve the problems of uncertainty and asymmetry of bee product circulation information.
5. Coping Strategies for China’s Bee Product Circulation
5.1 Diversification of Bee Product Circulation Entities
China’s bee product circulation entities are facing a situation of value chain reconstruction. The division of labor among bee product circulation entities is more detailed, requiring bee product circulation participants to have their core capabilities and competitive resources. Many new bee product circulation entities will emerge one after another, such as agencies engaged in bee product trading intermediaries, cold storage and preservation intermediaries, and transportation intermediaries.
5.2 Modernization of Bee Product Circulation System
First, the government should support the chain operation of bee products, build a regional bee product distribution system, and innovate bee product circulation channels; Second, establish an integrated and global bee product wholesale market to achieve the function of sourcing at the origin market and the sales function at the destination market; Third, achieve the combination of offline and online transactions.
5.3 Globalization of Bee Product Circulation Space
Affected by natural conditions, the quality of bee products has strong regional characteristics. For example, green propolis produced in Brazil and Manuka honey produced in New Zealand; Another example is China’s Northeast Black Bee Honey, Xinjiang Black Bee Honey, North China and Northwest Acacia Honey, and Northeast Linden Tree Honey. The circulation space of bee products must extend to beekeeping production areas, agricultural product distribution markets, and collaborate with related logistics and distribution industries to form multiple industrial chains of bee products across production and sales areas, industries, and departments.
5.4 Diversification of Bee Product Circulation Platforms
With the popularity of online shopping and the improvement of the express logistics industry, online sales have become a new sales channel. The government or companies build a good information platform to directly serve beekeeping producers or small beekeeping professional cooperatives, which can not only help beekeepers solve the problem of bee product sales but also provide consumers with high-quality bee products and enhance the popularity of local bee product brands at the same time.
Information Source: Bee Magazine, Issue 5, 2024
