One of the
most ancient crafts
in Greece
faces the challenges of the modern era
History of apiculture in Greece has length more than 5000
years. Through such a long period of
time, the whole world has significantly changed; civilizations were built and
destroyed, human mindset has become disparate, finally all inventions
have reconstructed our ways to do almost everything. Nowadays, most
of us cannot imagine doing agriculture without machinery or living without
electricity, but Greek beekeeping remained almost untouched.
The direct keepers of all ancient traditions are the
local individual honey producers.
But who
are they and why do they still follow old rules of production in
21st century?
The
typical Greek beekeeper is the person who may have any education, age,
income and so on. However, all of them have a lot in common;
for instance, the same strong passion for customs and
honey, respect towards consumers, and, unfortunately, various problems that
happen every day in their lives.
Greek
apiculture is very different than in other countries due to the uniqueness
of the country’s geography. Mountainous areas, forests, hills and fields
are rich with various botanic species and covered
with thousands of hives. One single beekeeper
usually has around 100 hives dispersed in different isolated apiaries
which can have tens of kilometres distance between each
other. Therefore, one of the main costs of the Greek honey is
transportation expenses. According to our
study of micro beekeepers in Elis region in
western Peloponnese, fuel expenses
can make up 20-25% of total costs. These numbers become much
more frightening when we take a look on fuel prices: Greece
is at the top of the list!
The
second barrier for beekeepers’ prosperity is current economic
situation in Europe and particularly in Greece. Continuous stagnation reduced
buying power of mass customer and demand for home-made honey.
Unfortunately, Greek honey is expensive, especially if it is produced at small
scale, and even though small honey producers are telling that
their customers are quite loyal, people are starting to buy more and more
cheaper substitutes from supermarkets. Furthermore,
the State is going to set up new taxes
for beekeeping that can hurt a lot this sensitive industry, allowing only
corporations to survive and possibly bringing negative effects to beekeepers and
to us too, since quality and authenticity will be in danger of
disappearing.
As for the State, small beekeepers have mixed attitudes
towards it. Some of them have only negative thoughts because of taxes,
others are looking at the governmental institutions with hope, and the
smallest group has already been given support, for example subsidies for
transportation of hives. However, all of the apiculturists are open for any
discussion and ready to suggest various win-win solutions.
The third
biggest problem for small honey producers,
according to our survey, is the old-fashioned way of doing
business. Of course, we are not talking about production process, since
traditional practices is one of the things that make products unique
in Elis region,
but other business activities.
For
instance, very few producers, mainly the bigger companies, have their own
website and a few sell honey B2B, while others sell directly, from mouth to
mouth, to loyal customers who usually live nearby.
Accessibility
to home-made honey is low for a common customer who has no way to find
and buy it. Moreover,
often people even do not know about the existence of available traditionally
produced honey, since not many advertising efforts are done by honey
producers. The point here is that small beekeepers cannot
reach their potential clients, and this weakness
is very crucial in time of high competition and big
corporations.
Furthermore, during our interview process, beekeepers have
mentioned difficulties with answering one of the key questions of any
business: “What is your competitive advantage?” or in other words “Why should consumers
buy from you?”
Most of them could outline the high standards of quality,
some paid more attention to the organic origins of their products.
However, these advantages can be applied to many other micro beekeepers,
who also keep the same production traditions.
It is very essential for beekeepers to stand out with
uniqueness and strong identity to gain more customers, especially
in times of tough domestic competition and attempts of foreign producers to
present their products as Greek ones. Cooperation between the government,
educational institutions and apiculturists could be very helpful to increase
efficiency and knowledge of important business practices.
Future: does it exist?
Nevertheless, the positive points also take place.
Environmental
awareness is growing each day and people are ready to pay extra
for organic and ethically produced goods, meanwhile some governmental
institutions such as EU try to promote such products and support
producers.
In
addition, due to rich botanic diversity Greek honey has strong competitive
advantage for its nutrition and healing characteristics, which are recognized
in biological laboratories.
Also, some
types of honey such as thyme, pine- and oak tree honey can be found mostly only
in Greece,
therefore it is possible to find the niche on the market without any
competition.
Survival
of small independent producers is an urgent need: the
State would benefit from creating an attractive identity of local products,
consumers would be satisfied to enjoy authentic and superior product,
meanwhile beekeepers could save traditions and maintain their lifestyle.
It is
obvious that it is feasible only by creating stable axes of collaboration.
However,
it is still a big question when all these 3 parties –State, consumers and
beekeepers- will manage to sit together around the same table and start
changing the situation?
Rostislav Nikulin
Erasmus
Intern from Russia, Karelia University
of Applied Sciences, Finland,
Faculty: International Business,
in
collaboration with “Dione” Local Development Centre in Ancient Olympia
Contact:
