# 2012 almonds - is pricing out from Paramount or Traynor yet?



## JohnK and Sheri (Nov 28, 2004)

I'm wondering if anyone has heard anything about 2012 almond pollination fees.

Sheri


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## Almondralf (Jun 20, 2011)

Check out the point of view section: http://www.beesource.com/point-of-v...sletter/almond-grower-newsletter-may-11-2011/

Traynor already confirmed in May 2011 that 2012 almond polination fees will be the same as 2011.


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## G B (Nov 6, 2009)

A friend of mine just his contract, 135 plus the bonus


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## Gregg (Dec 22, 2003)

And the bonus is????????


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## JohnK and Sheri (Nov 28, 2004)

G B said:


> 135 plus the bonus


Is this from a grower or a broker, ie is this before or after any fees?


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## JohnK and Sheri (Nov 28, 2004)

Almondralf said:


> Traynor ..confirmed .. 2012 fees will be the same as 2011.


Soooooo, what were the 2011 fees?

Sheri


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## G B (Nov 6, 2009)

seems to me that he said 3 dollars per frame up to 4 frames for a possible 12 dollar bonus, I know he contracts directely with paramont , no broker


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## florida pollinator (Jul 31, 2006)

I would'nt leave the house for 135.00 unless it' s my back yard. I know two large beekeepers from here that unless the price goes up from this years price are saying they will go for honey rather than go west.
Freight and the fees are eating into the profit compared to honey and the good of the hives, and the growers playing games as long as the can find cheap bees just makes it less appealing .


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## Nick Noyes (Apr 28, 2005)

Sheri I believe it was $169 to the beekeeper. Do you have extras for rent?
Does anyone know if it is true Paramount does not spray fungicide on thier almonds?
It must cost a lot of money to ship bees from Florida. Also a lot of risk involved sitting on a truck that long both ways.
Everything that glitters is not gold.


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## JohnK and Sheri (Nov 28, 2004)

Nick, no extra bees here. Just to clarify.....that $169 was to beekeepers contracting directly to the grower I assume? Beeks with brokers would net less.....I think another big broker is getting $160 from growers, that is 8 fr average, doesn't Traynor guarantee 8 fr min? 
Re the bonus, I had understood previous years that it was $10 per frame above 8 (or 10?) up to a certain max. 
Not spraying fungicides would be worth a certain amount of $$, I would think, but I can't believe Paramount doesn't spray if conditions warrant. I don't know much about almond culture, what alternative would they have?

Yeah, shipping is a big expense. Gonna cost the better part of 10K each load out and back from Wisconsin, but we don't make much honey in February here and a 3 day each way truck drive beats a 3 month snowdrift.. Florida is another 500+- miles further plus they might miss orange if they ship. One good thing is that normally our northern route makes it a cool trip until you get down into California. We ship early Nov so it can be pretty warm in the valley still.

Sheri


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## Stevebeeman (May 22, 2011)

I came across this web site with an interesting concept. IF it takes off, we will be able to watch the ASK, BID and PAID prices of almond pollination services as if it were on the Stock Exchange. It will be interesting to see the asking prices from growers. Check it out, what do you think? WWW.ezibees.com.


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## Stevebeeman (May 22, 2011)

When it comes to setting, pollination prices Beekeepers are their own worst enemy.

*Beekeepers are the ones that drive the pollination prices down.*

Stop and think for a moment what would happen if there were no bees available to pollinate almonds!

There are few, if any, other industries in California that are experiencing such an increasingly wide disparity between the balances of supply and demand for services than the almond pollination industry. In economic terms, the demand for almond pollination services is almost a Perfectly Inelastic Demand. That is, the demand for bee colonies SHOULD exhibits zero responsiveness to price changes; no matter what the price, the quantity demanded remains the same.
There are no substitutes for bee pollination of almonds. Bees are essential to almond production: if the tree is NOT pollinated, it will NOT produce nuts.
In the classic Supply and Demand Curve, the demand curve slopes down from left to right indicating as price increase, demand decline; the Inelastic Demand Curve is vertical, if the almond grower requires an average of two colonies per acre, then the demand for 705,000 acres requires (demands) 1.4 million colonies. This represents over 57% of all the colonies in the United States.
California has approximately 500,000 colonies locally. Over one million, 71% of all colonies used to pollinate next season’s Almond crop will be imported from other states and incurring substantial freight costs which should be passed on to the growers.
Theoretically, growers will pay whatever pollination price they have to if they can pass the cost on to the buyer. Growers as a group “bid for,” or “bid up” the price of colonies.
While pollination services set the minimums, cost demands drive the cost of the hive up. 
Obviously, from a practical standpoint growers will not pay pass a point for which they cannot recover their expense. Currently pollination fees account for 20% of the cost of production of almonds. The growers have a dilemma, if they do not pay for pollination services, the trees will not produce nuts. Current the world almond inventory supply is between 5–6 percent, which is considered a very low surplus. Those growers that do pay for pollination services will receive a premium for their almonds.
Demand for almonds are not Perfectly Inelastic, consumers do not and will not pay a higher price for almonds without affecting the demand. There are substitutes for almonds.
Nuff Said!


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## Stevebeeman (May 22, 2011)

According to the California State Beekeepers Assoc. Survey the average almond pollination fees were.........................
2008 - $148.50
2009 - $157.03
2010 - $150.79
2011 - $158.37 (projected)


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## EastSideBuzz (Apr 12, 2009)

Stevebeeman said:


> It will be interesting to see the asking prices from growers. Check it out, what do you think? WWW.ezibees.com.


Interesting that the site thinks that California is a country and wont let you pick any state other then CA. Those Californians they think the world revolves around them.


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## Stevebeeman (May 22, 2011)

Now, Now be nice. Caifornians didn't develope this web site. Some guys from down under did. Looks like they are going after almond pollination (maybe some Kiwi). Last time I counted there we 6 almond trees in Washington. We Californians have over 92 million.
Give them a call, they should expand it to other crops and other state.


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## high rate of speed (Jan 4, 2008)

times are pretty good in the bee business.pollination and honey makes things click just right.


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## EastSideBuzz (Apr 12, 2009)

Oh I was just kidding. They actually fixed the site now and you can specify a state you are in. 

My day job for a company out of CA thinks that our customers in DC are in Washington also. The support guys just pick Washington and don't know that DC and WA are different so I get all the emails for the DC guys. Probably the India support center does not know the difference. Kiwi's probably have the same issue. 

Just kidding about the CA people. I lived there until the gov-a-nator.  I am looking for a contract for my 80 hives if you know of anyone needing some. PM me.


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## oblib (Oct 28, 2011)

Kind of curious, from how far away do people ship hives out to Cali? I mean do some ship them from the midwest, Florida, Maine?


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## EastSideBuzz (Apr 12, 2009)

Yup, 90% or all bee's in the USA go to CA for almonds. Might be higher.

Now CCD has made some of the big guys rethink that and not take all the eggs to the CA Basket. But, if you pollinate for a living CA is on your list. But, shipping from east coast is hard on the bee's and costly to take to CA.


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## oblib (Oct 28, 2011)

Must be money in it if they shipping that far, I'll have to learn how that works when I hive enough hives.


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