Identification of the factors affecting the honey production in beekeeping farms of Mersin Province in Turkey

This study aims to evaluate the beekeeping farms in Mersin province economically and to reveal the factors affecting honey production. The questionnaires were carried out in October-November 2020, and the data were collected from 81 beekeepers through face-to-face interviews. The stratified method of sampling was used the number of hives owned to beekeeping farms. Variable, fixed, and total costs of beekeepers in honey production were calculated in the research area. As a result of the determination of honey production cost, it was revealed that 27.38% of the variable cost ratio among the total costs and the variable cost and fixed cost ratio was 72.62%. According to the results, it was seen that the production value was inversely proportional to the increase in size in beekeeping enterprises. It was concluded that the main reason for this difference was that small-scale enterprises used the marketing channel more effectively. The relative profit was calculated as 1.67 $ on average. This result showed that 67% profit could be obtained from spending 1 US$ on honey production in farms. In the study, 14 variables were subjected to factor analysis to determine the factors affecting honey production. As a result of the factor analysis, three groups were defined as production factors, demographic factors, external factors, and the effects of these factor groups on honey production were determined.