They are particularly incensed by three countries that, ten years ago, exported zero honey to the U.S., according to Department of Commerce data. India, Malaysia and Indonesia are mysteriously on pace to ship 43 million kilograms of honey into the U.S. by year’s end.
“It is widely known those countries have no productive capacity to justify those quantities,” said Mr. Phipps, the honey markets expert.
He said a recent EU decision to ban honey from India over worries of lead and other contaminates – much of it widely suspected to be of Chinese origin – has only increased odds that more Chinese honey is bound for U.S. borders.
Mr. Adee, the beekeeper, said he’s been attending talks in Washington to convey who the targets of honey laundering probes should really be.
“It’s kind of like they’re running a car-stealing ring,” he said. “You catch the guy stealing the car and put him out of business. But the guy that’s laundering, the chop shop or the packer, he just finds another supplier,” he said, adding: “I think it’s going to keep getting worse until we catch a couple of big ones, give them a little jail time.”
In the meantime, the industry is working to shore up honey’s reputation, which is at risk of going sour if consumers perceive the commodity as prone to adulteration. An online hub called the True Source Honey Initiative has been set up by an industry group to increase the brand value of “ethically sourced” honey. They have a Facebook page where they trumpet breaks in honey laundering cases and are planning to launch a new traceability initiative in the coming months that will eventually allow honey sellers to trace honey back to its original hive.
“The ultimate goal is to level the playing field for those that are sourcing their honey according to regulations,” said Dutch Gold’s Ms. Clark.
But implementation will take years, and beekeepers in the U.S., Canada and Australia are struggling to compete with the cheaper, poorer quality imports flooding the market.
“This issue really is a facet of the whole global food trade,” said Ms. Pundyk, whose book The Honey Trail explores the impact of globalization on bees. “We have become accustomed to getting whatever we want whenever we want it, and there will always be someone out there keen to pander to this.”
