Honey producer Apidava reached a turnover of 10,5 million euros
Apidava, the honey producer from Blaj, Alba county, founded 26 years ago by the Physics professor Victor Mates, has had last year a turnover of 47.8 million RON (10.5 million euros), increasing by 16.5% as compared to the previous year. The company has had, last year, 4.3 million RON net profit (945,000 euros), 2.7 times greater than the one in the previous year, and an average number of 47 employees, according to public data.
The company processes yearly approximately 2,000 tons of honey, about 50% of the production being exported. Apidava exports honey in more than 15 countries in the world, the company's products being sold in some of the most exclusive shops in Tokyo, with the specification "Romanian high quality honey", according to the information found on the company's website.
The Romanian polyfloral honey and the Acacia honey are the most requested assortments by the company's customers in Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, England, which are countries with a reduced honey production, as compared to their consumption. Apidava has managed, in 26 years of doing business, to make its products known also on the markets in Japan, Canada, Singapore or China.
The company produces and sells honey under its own brand, Roua Florilor, organic honey, honey specialties, bee products with propolis, cosmetics with honey, honey candies, honey drops or honey soaps.
The story of Apidava has begun in 1992 as a small family business, with only 2 employees and with the 50 beehives owned by Victor Mates, a Physics professor from Blaj. He inherited the pleasure for beekeeping from his grandfather and has turned it into a hobby, between 1980 and 1992.
Roua Florilor brand came alive in the kitchen of the Mates family, where the first honey jars were labelled, from their own production. At the beginning, the entire honey production was extracted, packed and labelled manually by the family members, then delivered with their own car to the stores in Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest and to other few big cities in the country.
The company has developed along with the appearance of the store chains and has grown together with them, learning to analyze the production and quality requirements imposed by the EU standards. Apidava has concluded partnerships with Metro, Billa, Penny Market, Selgros, Cora, Unicarm, Annabella, with various natural product stores and traditional product stores in Romania, but the company's products are distributed within the hospitality industry as well. The company has begun to export its products in 2001, the sales on the external markets representing 50-60% of the company's turnover.
Starting with January 2005, the company has turned into a Romanian-Dutch joint venture. In September 2007, the company Apis Prod SRL changed its name into Apidava SRL, due to the desire of highlighting the Romanian tradition in the field of honey.
Due to the high demand for its products, Apidava has invested in retrofitting, currently reaching a honey processing capacity 50% higher as compared to the previous one, according to the data found on the company's website.
A third of the honey production is exported
Romania, one of the biggest honey producers in the EU, has sold, last year, 37% of its honey production through exports, at an average price of 3.7 euro (17 RON) per kilogram and has imported honey, 45% cheaper, from Moldova, Poland, Hungary or China, at 2.6 euros (12 RON) per kilogram, for the internal consumption, according to the calculations of ZF, based on Eurostat data.
In 2017, the Romanian beekeepers have produced more than 30,000 tons of honey, 12,000 tons being exported, according to official statistics. The export value has been 45.8 million euros and the main destinations have been Germany (14.4 million euros), Italy (7.9 million euros) and Japan (5.5 million euros), according to Eurostat. In 2017, Romania has imported more than 3,600 tons of honey, for a value of over 9.3 million euros. According to the value of honey imports in 2017, the main countries from which Romania imports honey are Moldova (3.5 million euros), Poland (1.4 million euros) and Hungary (1.2 million euros), according to Eurostat.
