Study of Relationship between Production Efficiency (by Variable Returns) and Beekeeping Unit Size in Mazanderan Province

Abstract
The high honey nutritional value, more than 60 thousand honey producers, first production ranked in the Middle East and thirteen in the world, are the importance of honey production in Iran. The purpose of this paper is to determine the efficiency of honey production and its relationship with the hive numbers in Mazanderan province. Data is collected from the 50 producers by random sampling in 2010. According to results more unites is inefficiencies and the average efficiency is calculated about 80% and the lowest is about 60 percent. The results indicate the efficiency of different units is high. Determining effective of size on efficiency indicate that there are a ”U” relationship between efficiency and size.
The optimum number of beehives is 407 in every apiary that according to finding, about 84% of beekeepers are less than the above suggested record, therefore it is recommended that policies are concentrated toward larger units.
JEL Classification : D22, D24, L25
Keywords:
Honey, Economic Size, Efficiency, Mazandaran Province