“Doesn’t come from Mars”: Honey is counterfeited en masse

“Does not come from Mars”
Honey is counterfeited en masse

By Victoria Robertz

Adulterated honey floods Europe. This is a big problem for domestic beekeepers. It is hardly possible for consumers to tell the differences.

Anyone who has taken a closer look at the honey jar at the breakfast table may have noticed the inscription on the label: “Mixture of honey from EU and non-EU countries”. This means that the content of the glass can theoretically come from anywhere. In fact, in many cases there is no honey in the glass at all, just sugar water. Scientists from the EU Commission proved this in a study a few weeks ago. Fake, cheap imports from non-EU countries put domestic beekeepers under pressure and mislead consumers.

In the supermarket there are various types of honey, from blossom to rapeseed honey to organic products and “real German honey”. One and the same variety can look the same, but cost different amounts. Most then resort to the cheaper product – but that might not be real honey at all. “The cheaper the honeys are, the more likely it is that they are not real,” Bernhard Heuvel from the European Professional Beekeepers Association told “Capital”.

Because producing real honey is complex and expensive. For a standard 500 gram jar of honey, worker bees have to fly out around 40,000 times and cover up to 120,000 kilometers, calculates the German Beekeepers’ Association. In processing, the high energy costs are particularly important. The glass and label costs have recently increased by 40 to 50 percent, reports Torsten Ellmann from the German Beekeepers’ Association. “We can’t split it up one-to-one, because then we won’t be able to sell the honey,” he says. “Actually, the honey should be much more expensive.”

Heuvel explains that the production costs in Germany differ greatly from those in Asia or South America, for example. “In Germany, the production costs per kilo of honey are 7.90 euros,” says the professional beekeeper. “Counterfeit honey from abroad is available for less than one euro per kilo, with customs and delivery to the doorsteps of wholesalers it’s 2.50 euros.”

Honey is a billion dollar market

The EU imports 175,000 tons of honey every year, mainly from China, Ukraine, Turkey and South America. The Joint Research Center of the EU Commission showed in a study at the end of March: A large part of the honey imported into the EU is cut. Instead of natural sugar, the honey samples from 2021 and 2022 were mixed with sugar syrup, water, coloring and additives. In almost every non-European country, at least one of the samples examined did not comply with the EU specifications, which stipulate a maximum water content, for example. Most of the fakes came from Turkey and China. Overall, almost half of the samples examined were not real honey, compared to only 14 percent in the previous investigation period from 2015 to 2017.

Producers and consumer protection organizations had long feared a result like this. The demand for honey, which has been increasing for years, has driven prices in the EU to record highs. In 2021, the market had a volume of 2.3 billion euros, according to the market research company Euromonitor. Since sugar syrup is much cheaper to produce, the profit margin on fake honey is large. “Falsified honey is offered at lower prices, so beekeepers’ high-quality honeys cannot compete in terms of price,” says Ellmann.

The European Professional Beekeepers Association has therefore been working with the authorities since 2019 and is also researching where honey counterfeiters come from. Because even laboratories cannot always tell the difference between real and fake honey, the fakes are so good – and consumers certainly cannot. “What is currently on the labels of mixtures from EU and non-EU countries means that the honey does not come from Mars,” criticizes Heuvel. “Otherwise it’s completely open.” Even with organic honey, only the manufacturing process is certified, but ultimately the bees fly out in the same landscape as those whose honey is sold as conventional. In terms of taste, differences between honeys can only be recognized by experts. Heuvel therefore believes that a lower price limit for honey imports, like the one in the USA, makes sense.

EU wants stricter rules

The EU Commission wants to ensure more transparency with a new legislative package. On the initiative of 20 member states, it has presented a new package of laws intended to make the origin of honey more transparent. In the future, the countries of origin will be indicated individually on the labels. In the run-up to this, there had even been calls for the shares of the countries to be specified as a percentage and to be controlled even more strictly. A member state official spoken to by the Financial Times said the new regulations were not sufficient: better honey “traceability” was needed. Because the study results had shown that the true geographical origin of the honey was often obscured.

The German Beekeepers Association is also in favor of stricter import controls and stronger sanctions. Exporters and importers who bring adulterated honey onto the market would have to fear more legal consequences, says Ellmann. In addition, uniform quality standards are finally needed. Until then, consumers are best advised to buy their honey from local beekeepers.

In the long run, fake and cheap honey imports could not only deceive consumers and put European beekeepers under pressure, but also damage the European economy. Because the pollination of bees cannot be imported. According to the European Commission’s Department for Food Security, pollinators, including bees, contribute 22 billion euros to European agriculture every year. Traveling thousands of miles collecting nectar, they pollinate millions of flowers on crops and wild plants. Because bees can also pollinate large fields in a short time, the plants mature more evenly and farmers have fewer losses during the harvest.

This text first appeared on “Capital”

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