Periyar Bee Co-op

The story behind Periyar Bee Co-op

Twenty-three beekeepers working the Nilgiri slopes, and two rules that the co-op does not bend on. No smoke at harvest. Smoking a hive is faster and calmer for the harvester, and it stresses the colony badly. The co-op works slowly instead, in the cool hours, and accepts the lower daily yield that comes with it. No queen-killing. Some commercial operations destroy the queen to force a final honey flow before the season closes. It works once. The co-op has hives that have been productive for years because it never does this. Every lot is tested for purity at our Hyderabad lab before it reaches a jar. In a market where a significant share of retail honey fails that test, the tested lot number on the label is the part that actually matters. The land here is dryland, with annual rainfall under 600mm, so every choice the family makes matters. Three generations have farmed this soil, and the youngest is now trying biochar and short-rotation cover crops.

We work with them on a five-year offtake agreement, at a price renegotiated every year against an open cost-of-production formula. When wholesale prices rise, we share the gain. When the monsoon fails, we share the bridge financing.