This was an article in a Utah County Beekeepers Association newsletter and I thought it was very interesting:
Have you ever wondered how the grocery stores can sell honey so cheaply? Doesn’t it seem odd that some retail honey sells for less than what it costs you to produce it? Well, the answer to these questions may be more convoluted than you think.
Have you ever wondered how the grocery stores can sell honey so cheaply? Doesn’t it seem odd that some retail honey sells for less than what it costs you to produce it? Well, the answer to these questions may be more convoluted than you think.
Every year US beekeepers produce about 190 million pounds of honey but the US per capita consumption of honey is 1.1 pounds per year and equates to about 450 million pounds of honey consumed annually. This means that 60% of all honey packaged and sold in the US is imported. Of the imported honey, at least 50% of it originates from China no matter hat the label on the container says.
The problem with Chinese honey is that it has been dumped on the US market at prices as low as 22 cents a pound, it has a record of being adulterated with other sweeteners, containing banned antibiotics, and containing dangerous substances such as lead. To prevent the Chinese from dumping their honey onto the US market the US now charges a $1.20 per pound fee on all imported Chinese honey. USDA has tried to inspect some honey shipments but it is a low priority task compared to their other duties. Therefore, it is a rare occasion that the honey is inspected.
To get around the import fees and inspections the Chinese have found out that they can transship the honey through other countries and re-label it. In 2008, for example, it was determined that of the 665 shipments of honey from India 471 of them were actually transshipped from China. As a matter of fact since the import fees were added to Chinese honey the amount of honey coming “from China” has decreased but seven of the top 12 honey exporting countries now export far more honey than they produce.
They include Vietnam, India, Thailand, Russia, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Furthermore countries such as Singapore and Grand Bahamas, which have no commercial beekeepers, are now honey exporters. Now one might think that imported honey can be avoided by buying “good” US brands like Sue Bee, which is the largest honey cooperative and packer in the US. Unfortunately, that is not true. According to Sue Bee they buy all the US honey they can, which equals about 60% of what they pack, and then buy the rest from the overseas market. Investigators have found that some of that imported honey they buy is transshipped honey from China. Sue Bee does independently test their honey and they say they reject any contaminated honey but they also say that they just return it to the honey broker which in turn sells it to another packer at a discount. Sue Bee, like many of the packers, does not turn over or report the contaminated/adulterated honey to the USDA for follow-up. Sue Bee says that it is just following the standard procedures of most honey packers in the US. Therefore the USDA does not even find out that the shipment was adulterated or contaminated.
When we sell our honey we often brag of the health benefits of eating local honey but we may be missing the greatest health benefit of all. Our honey is local, not imported, and is free of antibiotics, contaminates, and adulteration. Local honey comes from a trusted known source, you. Local honey should therefore command a much higher price in that the customer can be assured that they are getting a quality product from a trusted source. It is imperative that we maintain the quality of our product and the customer trust.
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