An Analysis on The Relationship of Organic Honey Production and The Number of Producers with Growth, Employment, and Agricultural Employment in Türkiye; [Türkiye’de Organik Bal Üretimi ve Üretici Sayısı ile Büyüme, İstihdam ve Tarımsal İstihdam Arasındaki İlişkinin Tespitine Yönelik Bir Analiz]

The growing world population has driven humanity to produce more food, potentially leading to the neglect of quality and safety in food production. Evolving life conditions and technological progress have altered the consciousness level of humanity, bringing about new demands in some communities due to high income. Organic beekeeping has developed within this structure and tends to flourish as a model in Türkiye. Organic beekeeping has increased the income from beekeeping. It is practiced in natural unspoiled areas with no conventional feeding and chemical pesticides and requires supervising all processes through inspection and certification. Besides organic honey, the most common organic beekeeping product, organic bee products include bee pollen, propolis, royal jelly, beeswax, and bee venom. This study presents the economic analysis of organic honey production volume in Türkiye. For this purpose, the short and long-term relationships of organic honey production and the number of producers with economic growth, employment, and agricultural employment were analyzed. In addition, organic honey production and the number of organic honey producers were examined as driving forces for growth, employment, and agricultural employment. In this context, annual time series data between 2004 and 2022 were used as the sample. According to the analysis, organic honey production, an independent variable, had no long-term relationship with employment and agricultural employment variables, whereas it had a long-term relationship with the growth variable. The number of organic honey producers, another independent variable, was found to have no long-run relationship with the employment variable; however, it had a long-term relationship with the growth and agricultural employment variables. The findings of the study indicated that organic honey production did not drive growth, employment, or agricultural employment. On the other hand, the number of organic honey producers led to growth, yet not to employment or agricultural employment.