Determinants of the compliance of honey producers with HACCP-based quality management: The case of family apiculture in Northeastern Brazil

Abstract

Worldwide the progress in food technology and the growing knowledge of food health hazards awakened the concern to protect consumers. In this sense the adoption of the HACCP system took place as mandatory requirement in developed countries. It was not any different in Brazil; the government too adopted the HACCP system as a mandatory standard for food processing industry in 1998, and in 2004 as well for the primary production of honey. In order to analyze the factors which influence the compliance of honey producers with HACCP-based quality management, the author of the present thesis conducted an empirical survey in three micro-regions of the State of Ceará/Brazil. The interviews were made with 115 beekeepers. The results showed that the beekeepers’ knowledge of the HACCP-based quality management is positively influenced by the attendance in beekeeping courses and selling directly to the exporting firm. Knowledge turned out to be a precursor of the implementation. Better knowledge has also a positive impact on the improvements on the infrastructure for extracting the honey. Infrastructure showed to improve the levels of the implementation of the HACCP-based quality management. That is the reason why the distance to the nearest constructed house especially designed to extract honey turned out to be negatively correlated with the implementation. Higher levels of implementation lead to the register into the MAPA, subsequently the beekeepers start to be inspected by the SIF and to comply with the Brazilian legislation. It was found that only 11% of the beekeepers are inspected by the SIF and do not receive an extra price for complying with the national legislation. Facing that 90% of the beekeepers have less than 100 beehives with bees and extract honey on average 3.22 times per year, the construction of collective houses for extracting honey are a vital issue. This construction should be facilitated by the government. It should be the obligation of the State who provides legislation to make it easier for the beekeepers to comply with it. In this sense, the house for extracting honey should be subsidized by the government. This subsidy could be with donations of materials for the constructions or with special credit programs for group of beekeepers.