lo Nov., T908.] Ex fort Trade in Honey. 645 



at low prices, and afterwards retailed as English honey at high prices. 

 Special inquiries which 1 made convinced me that there is no foundation 

 whatever for this belief. 



There appear to me to be two ways in which an export trade in honey 

 may be established: (i) A continuous supply or, (2) honey without the 

 characteristic aroma. As to the first, to enable a continuous supply to 

 be maintained in order to educate consumers to a taste for our honey, 

 increased production becomes a necessity. The beekeeping industry in 

 Victoria is just now at a stage when rather too much is produced in 

 normal seasons for local consumption, but not enough for export. A 

 step forward is the only means of ending the difficulty. Increased pro- 

 duction may temporarily lower prices, but other industries, such as dairy- 

 ing and fruitgrowing have faced and overcome the same difficulty. 

 In our own industry the removal of certain disabilities, and the adoption 

 more generally by the majority of the best methods of management, 

 would partly if not whollv compensate for the difference. As to the 

 second, honev without strong aroma could be exported whenever pro- 

 duction exceeds local consumption and would compete on even terms in 

 European markets with honev from other countries. At present we have 

 such honey obtained from minor sources only in very limited quantities. 

 The cultivation of special plants for honey production is admittedly so 

 impracticable as to deserve no further notice. It therefore remains to 

 be seen whether the elimination of the strong aroma of our honey is pos- 

 sible, and commercially practicable. There is no doubt that much of it 

 disappears after a time. The samples 1 carried which had been opened 

 so many times were much milder in the end. Mr. W. F. Reid, of Field- 

 side Addlestone, England, a prominent member of the British Beekeepers' 

 Association, expressed the opinion tlmt the strong aroma could be effec- 

 tually and inexpensively removed, without keeping the honey for the 

 length of t'me which might be necessary otherwise. The removal of the 

 objectionable aroma would in a great measure overcome the difficulties 

 of opening an export trade and I think experiments highly desirable. 



Methods of Marketing Abroad. 



The methods of marketing in England, Germany and America are 

 very similar. For the retail trade honey is universally put up in glass 

 jars holding i lb. or \ lb. I saw no honev put up in tin anywhere. One 

 reason is that glass permits the purchaser to judge by appearance the 

 nature, colour and condition of the honey. >Iost of the honey I saw 

 was granulated, almost white and smooth resembling soft butter in texture. 

 Tin packages are objected to on account of corrosion by the acids in 

 honey, in the presence of moisture absorbed from the atmosphere, dis- 

 colouring the honey. Most retailers insist on selling honey under their 

 own labels, and doing their own bottling. In some cases packages bear 

 the label of a beekeepers' association ; in that case the retailer is usually 

 the sole agent in his locality. The obvious object in either case is to 

 advertise their place of business. An allowance is made for jars returned 

 empty and this gives the dealer bottling his own honey an advantage over 

 a rival buying and selling ready bottled honey. One pound honey jars 

 with screw top caps and cork wads cost 15s. per gross in England; in 

 ■Germany slightly less. The same kind would cost 22s. to 24s. in Mel- 

 bourne. 



