59-05-032 Proceeding

387 Proceedings of the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Congress environmental conditions and high predation pressures in the tropics. Reproductive swarming is highly variable but generally occurs several times a year. 3. More absconding but only due to threats or diseases, which are preventable.They never abscond without a reason. One problem is the beekeeper’s thoughtlessness, for example, smoking and disturbances. 4. Smaller size of bees and smaller radius of foraging areas spreading about 2 km covering only half of the A. mellifera make it produce naturally less than the larger Apis mellifera (Ryan 2010, Hasashi 2012). That is Apis cerana can produce only about ¼ amount of honey comparing to Apis mellifera . However, this is not exactly a disadvantage since the bees are smaller size and more friendly thus with additional colonies the amount of production can measure up, meaning the farmer may need to increase 4 times amount of colony of Apis cerana . 5. Notmigratory unlike EHB, not formigrating pollination but is good for local pollination. The Thai climate does not need migration from one weather or climate to another. The Markets In order to enter the economic status it is necessary to look at the market possibility. Honey can be sold both domestically and exported to the other countries. Currently, the largest international consumers of honey are inNorthAmerica and Europe, with theMiddle East training behind quite far. According to NAFTA, the largest consumer is the USA with the European Community the second largest. The largest importers of honey, especially Asian honey, is the US, mostly from China and India respectively. With the Chinese honey quality being in question and dumped or confiscated by the bulk, $2.45 millions USD worth confiscated in January 2015 alone, for example (Texas Bee Association, February 2015), the Indian export has increased dramatically and 99%of Indian honey exports are consumed by the US. Increasingly, Saudi Arabia is importing more honey. On the European import, most of the honey goes to Germany for both consumption and redistribution. The Problems There are two main problems to consider: one, the production, and, two, the marketing. On the production side, there needs to be enough products and high quality to attract the market, especially the international or larger than simple domestic market. This ranges from the beekeeping process, hygiene, the packaging, the production quantity and timeliness to the management. On themarketing side, overlapping somehowwith the production in the process, hygiene, packaging, quantity, quality, timeliness, and production management, we need to consider the trade legality, especially the trade regulatory and compliance, in addition tomarketing strategy and