The international market for honey and the competitiveness of Mexico

Abstract

It´s analysed the level and trend of Mexico honey bee´s competitiveness against the external offer of surpluses of the main producing countries during the 2001-2011 period. A longitudinal non-experimental design was used in its trend analyses variant through a review of literature (INEGI, SAGARPA, FAOSTAT), applying the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture of Colombia´s indicators of competitiveness. It was found that the production and world consumption of honney were favorable, they grew on average 2.15% and 2.18% respectively, and that in terms of competitiveness, Argentina ranked first, according to the transability index; the relative trade balance index positioned Dominican Republic as first; whereas the international specialization index gave to China and Argentina (1st and 2nd producer) this position. Mexico´ s production was upward, as was its export, but its demand for imports was donward; for this reason, its trade balance turned out to be surplus. It can be deduced that the favorable trend observed in the world market of honey bee from 2001 to 2011 was reflected in Mexico, evidencing the highest level of competitiveness in the world of the national honey, 9th in transability and trade balance indexes and 3rd in international specialization, second only to China and Argentina.