Productivity beekeeping in Mexico and its impact on profitability

The beekeeping in Mexico is an important activity in the livestock subsector, production volume and productivity level of the world placed sixth place; in America ranks third in both categories and exports ranked third. The aim is to characterize trends honey production, evaluate the productivity of its production process and the influence it has on profitability. The trend of domestic honey production has continued from 1990 to 2012 downward behavior with ups and downs, overall reduction was 11.9%, mainly associated with the influence of the africanization of the colonies, varroa and hurricanes; in particular, it was found that the levels of productivity per hive, working hours kilogram of sugar used in the feeding of colonies and per thousand pesos ($ 78.31 USD) investment in assets was 29.1, 14.6, 6.8 and 119.6 kg, respectively. It also showed that productivity exerts less influence on profitability compared to the selling price of honey and purchase of sugar, the second variable that exerts greater influence on the profit obtained.