With $200 and 3,000 pounds of honey, five beekeepers located near Sioux City, Iowa, formed a cooperative marketing organization in 1921. It was named Sioux Honey Association after the city of its founding.
Members formed the association so that they could market their honey at greater profit through sharing services and equipment, processing and packing facilities, and complete marketing and sales organizations.
The association is a cooperative in every sense of the word. Members own the association and control its operations through an elected Board of Directors. The management of the association is responsible to the directors.
Membership grew over the years to a peak of 1,200 but currently includes about 315 members as apiaries have grown, consolidated, and modernized like other agricultural businesses. Most of the membership hails from the western two-thirds of the United States plus Florida and Georgia. Each member is responsible for supplying the organization with honey extracted from the honeycomb. This liquid product is usually shipped to our processing plants in 55-gallon drums that hold approximately 650 pounds of honey. Collectively, our membership produces around 40 million pounds of honey annually (62,000 of these drums).
Prior to 1964, honey was delivered to one of the associations six packing facilities located in Sioux City, Iowa; Anaheim, California; Waycross, Georgia; Temple, Texas; Umatilla, Florida; or Lima, Ohio. Sioux Honey absorbed Bradshaw Honey Company of Wendell, Idaho, in 1964 and maintained that facility as well. As transportation improved, honey-producing areas moved westward and the business streamlined. Today only the Sioux City, Waycross, and Anaheim plants have remained to serve the association.
In the early days, honey was marketed under the "Sioux Bee" label, but the name was changed in 1964 to "Sue Bee" to reflect the correct pronunciation more clearly. Over time, other lines of honey were added, including Clover Maid, Aunt Sue, Natural Pure and North American brands.
Because honey's flavor depends on which flowers the bees work, the organization markets clover, orange, sage, and mixed floral honeys, each with its own distinct flavor.
At Sioux Honey Association plants, samples of all honey coming in are tested and graded for clarity, type, flavor, moisture and color. The most advanced methods and the most exacting standards are used to ensure that every grade of honey packed under the Sue Bee label is the finest available anywhere.
Sioux Honey Association has become a worldwide marketing organization. Its global presence extends to the Middle East, Far East, Europe, and South and Central America, and it continues to be a leader in the honey industry with state-of-the-art facilities, which include labor and developmental research.
Sioux Honey Association is also a green company, which means our products and containers are safe for the environment and we strive to protect our ecosystem through recycling, innovative engineering, and cutting back on over-packaging. We are always looking for new ways to help the environment.
Honey is one of the purest foods available, and Sue Bee Honey is proud to offer this natural resource to the world.
