European honey producers are sounding the alarm in the face of an alarming market situation and, on Friday 14 February, called for an emergency action plan to be put in place.
The European honey producers, who are members of Copa-Cogeca, are appealing to the European authorities for a strong and rapid reaction. This call is accompanied by an action plan proposing concrete measures to enable more than 650,000 European beekeepers to keep their heads above water.
The stakes are high, after an extremely complicated year in 2019, it is now the very viability of European bee farms that is at stake, which could lead to an irreversible erosion of the EU's degree of self-sufficiency in honey, according to Copa-Cogeca.
Since 2013, EU producers are facing increasing imports, especially from China, at low prices (average prices at €1.24/kg in 2019). Average production costs in the EU were €3.90/kg in 2018. This price difference can only be explained by “the massive addition of sugar syrup that is cheaper to produce and difficult to detect during controls at Europe's borders, as well as by a definition and method of honey production in China that does not comply with European standards”, the organisation explains.
According to Étienne Bruneau, Chairman of the Copa-Cogeca’s Working Party on Honey, if the market situation does not improve, European beekeepers will no longer be able to continue working, “which threatens the existence of more than 10 million hives in the EU”. This Working Party is proposing an action plan. Among these proposals, the organisation demands that the EU ensure that all honey imports from non-Member States comply with the definition of honey in the EU, first and foremost those from China. There is also a demand for labelling of the origin (country) on honey blends, as requested by several ministers of agriculture (see EUROPE 12413/13). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)