NEW YORK (TURKISH JOURNAL) – Dilek Kaya – BEE&YOU Propolis has brought the quality and authenticity of Anatolia’s unique bee products to America. This stunning success story was realized through the “Natural Product Expo East”. The fair was organized between September 20-23 in Philadelphia, USA as a platform where natural, healthy and organic products come together. It was a major event with more than 1,000 brands from around the world and more than 3,000 store chain representatives from the United States. BEE&YOU attracted great interest with its natural product ingredients and sustainable contract beekeeping business model.
Reliable bee products from hive to table
Funda Samancı, who manages BEE&YOU’s success in the American market, said, “The Contract Beekeeping Model implemented by BEE&YOU ensures the production of reliable bee products from hive to table. BEE&YOU is a bee products brand that has been working with the Contract Beekeeping Model since its establishment and contributing to the sector. “Contract Beekeeping Model” is a business model that contributes to the development of the beekeeping and bee products sector and at the same time ensures that bee products are offered to consumers in the most natural and pure way. Our business model is a system that not only offers a purchase guarantee to beekeepers, but also shows the quality of the product to the consumer. In our business model, first of all, expert agricultural engineers meet with beekeepers who can produce bee products and the apiaries are inspected. Care is taken to ensure that the apiary is located in areas with clean water sources, with no waste in the vicinity, away from factories and in areas where pesticides are not used. Thus, the naturalness of the products is protected and controlled at every step of production.”
Contract Beekeeping model for Fair Trade
With the Contract Beekeeping Model implemented, each beekeeper is committed to the exact price at which they will buy the products they produce, and in this way, “Fair Trade” is ensured by working directly with beekeepers and eliminating the intermediaries. All these make it possible for the Contract Beekeeping Model, which is the only method to ensure good beekeeping practices, to be sustainable and for beekeepers to conduct a mutual working life in trust. Underlining that they work with 5,000 beekeepers and 550,000 hives with a contractual model, Samanci said: “The company’s future goal is to continue to grow in the American market and become the largest seller of bee products in the American market in 2024. To achieve this goal, we will continue to increase our R&D efforts and develop new products. We are currently working with major outlets such as Trader Joe’s, CVS Pharmacy, GNC, Walmart, Amazon as well as distributors selling natural and healthy products such as UNFI, KEHE and Palko. We aim to increase the number of points of sale and introduce BEE&YOU to our consumers. In this way, we aim to both deliver reliable bee products to consumers and spread the right beekeeping practices around the world.”
