From: United States Department of Agriculture

National Agricultural Statistics Service

Iowa Ag News

Honey production from producers with five or more colonies in Iowa totaled 2.09 million pounds in 2019 according to the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service Honey report.

This was a 12 percent increase from the 1.86 million pounds produced in 2018. The number of honey producing colonies in the state at 38,000 is unchanged from 2018. This number does not include producers with fewer than five colonies or producers who did not harvest honey. Yield per colony in Iowa averaged 55 pounds, up from 49 pounds per colony in 2018.

Iowa ranked seventeenth nationally in honey production, up from eighteenth place in 2018. Colonies which produced honey in more than one state were counted in each state where the honey was produced. Therefore, at the United States level yield per colony may be understated, but total production would not be impacted.

On December 15, 2019, producer honey stocks in Iowa, excluding stocks under government loan programs, were 1.17 million pounds, a 16 percent increase from 2018. The state’s 2019 honey crop was valued at $4.68 million, up 5 percent from the previous year’s $4.47 million. The average price per pound for all marketing channels in Iowa was $2.24, down 16 cents from 2018.