The World Royal Jelly Industry: Present Status and Future Prospects

Abstract

Ten years ago the term ‘royal jelly’ was hardly known outside beekeeping circles. The idea of royal jelly as a commercial hive product is still too new, and too explosive emotionally, for many people to be objective about it. The authors of this article have carried out a notable service in compiling data on the production, price, and uses of royal jelly in countries as far apart as France and Formosa, Canada and Korea, Israel and Italy. They also indicate the royal jelly ‘climate’ in different parts of the world. The boom started in some of the more advanced countries, but had already declined there before it reached the rest of the world. Informed opinion now seems to be fairly unanimous that royal jelly production could have a permanent future as a useful part of the beekeeping industry, provided unassailable evidence is forthcoming that it has useful medical properties. Until or unless such evidence is available its future must remain uncertain.