🇨🇦🐝🍯 Canadian beekeepers are facing extremely difficult times | georgianbaynews.com
Canadian beekeepers are facing extremely difficult times due to the United States’ implementation of a 50% tariff on honey. Through no fault of our own, the US broadly applied tariffs across many sectors, including ours, as a pressure tactic in overall trade negotiations.
Our industry firmly believes that the honey/beekeeping sector, which is integral in the food security fabric of Canada, should not be targeted. Beekeepers across Canada are grateful for the strong public support and encourage the public to carefully look at labels to ensure you are buying Canadian honey.
The tariff on Canadian honey exports to the United States has forced the Canadian beekeeping industry to look at ways to provide stability to the sector. The board of the Canadian Honey Council believes a solution lies within our borders.
On average, Canada exports 9 million kg of honey annually – with up to 75% of that going to the USA.
At the same time Canada imports 10 million kg of honey annually from Brazil, India, Thailand, Vietnam and other countries. Unfortunately, several of these countries lack the regulatory requirements and standards that Canadian beekeepers pride themselves on, leaving room for the potential production and distribution of fraudulent and/or adulterated honey into the Canadian market.
In addition to honey being packed in jars and bottles on store shelves, honey is used as a key ingredient in a wide variety of products, including cereals, crackers, condiments, dairy and meat.
Canadian honey producers strive for a culture of integrity. We take pride in the authenticity of our products. We can find a great many solutions to the tariff issue within our own borders by choosing and promoting Canadian honey.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, in its periodic and recent sampling and testing of honey, has found that cases of fraudulent honey are from foreign and imported products, not Canadian beekeepers. That’s an important validation of our industry’s culture of integrity.
To achieve this goal of encouraging more domestic use, the Canadian Honey Council is calling for a number of large commercial users of industrial honey to proudly proclaim that they use Canadian honey in their products. Those companies include (in no order):
General Mills
Post Consumer Brands Canada
Kraft Heinz Canada
Bimbo Canada Kellogg’s
Clif Bar Canada
Canada Dry Mott’s
These important and well-meaning companies are not the only users of honey as an ingredient, and the public can help Canadian beekeepers by choosing Canadian packaged honey and asking all companies to identify where they get their honey from and proudly proclaim Canadian honey usage.
For further information, please contact:
Rod Scarlett
Executive Director
Canadian Honey Council
[email protected]
