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Selling it

Selling wholesale

By Dwight Davis, Founder

Updated

On this page6
Wholesale moves volume you would otherwise spend twenty Saturdays selling. It also halves your price, adds requirements you did not have, and turns a hobby into something with paperwork.

What changes the moment you sell to a shop

First, whether you are allowed to. In Michigan, honey producers are not limited to direct sales the way cottage food producers are and may wholesale to retailers if the label is correct. Other states draw that line differently, which is the first thing to check and not an afterthought.

Second, the label stops being yours alone. It is being read by a buyer, possibly by an inspector, and by a customer who never met you.

The margin

A retailer needs to make money on your honey. Expect roughly half of shelf price, which against USDA's 2025 producer average of $3.05 a pound puts wholesale somewhere above bulk and well below what you get at a market.

Run the numbers before the conversation, not during it. Your cost per jar does not fall because you sold more of them. If a one pound jar costs you the container, lid, label and honey, and the shop wants half of shelf, the question is whether what is left covers the work. Frequently the honest answer is that market sales pay better and wholesale pays sooner.

What a buyer actually needs from you

  • A compliant label, with everything on the federal floor plus whatever your state adds.
  • A barcode, if they scan at the till. Which most do.
  • Case packs, a consistent count per case, not loose jars in a box.
  • Supply they can rely on, which is the one that catches beekeepers out.
  • Liability insurance, which many retailers require before they will stock you.

Consistency is the hard part

A shop that sells your honey wants the same honey next month. Your hives produce different honey across a season, different colors, different setting speeds, sometimes different flavor entirely.

Blending across batches is the usual answer and it is a real change in how you work. So is being honest with a buyer that spring honey and fall honey are different products, which some buyers like and some do not.

Is it worth it

It is worth it when you have more honey than Saturdays, when the margin still works at half price, and when you can supply reliably enough not to lose the shelf. It is not worth it as a way to avoid selling, because a shelf you cannot keep filled is worse than no shelf.

References

Cornell University, Cornell Food Venture Center. Kitchens and Co-packers. cals.cornell.edu
US Food and Drug Administration. Guidance for Industry: Proper Labeling of Honey and Honey Products. fda.gov
Michigan State University Extension. Rules and regulations for selling honey in Michigan. canr.msu.edu
Food law varies by state and changes without notice. Anything here is a starting point for a conversation with your state department of agriculture, not a determination that you comply.