Dont think trading standards would like that, but wonder how far local is in the eyes of the trading standards?
Local is actually not a term with a strict definition as it is all rather relative. If you were in say, Leeds and were offered honey from Sheffield area you might with some justification say its not local, but compared to an offering from Hungary or Argentina it most certainly is local.
PH, not really in the business of pricking balloons, as there is a genuine basis for the statistics winker quoted. However they are historic figures based on estimates and are used for a reason by those with an agenda.
I am not the one at the sharp end of the considerations going on at a high level right now, ut a historic figure of live colonies in the UK some 60 years ago or so was put at 400-440K.
On the issue of honey prices and non availability in the shops, especially the multiples, there we have a big problem.
We are in economically straightened times, and customers have less to spend on honey. All premium honey types are currently in some degree of retreat in terms of their share of the sales pie. Not my words, the words of a contact high up in Rowse and in one of the multiples. The sector is in retreat, there was a decent crop out there in 2011, the beekeepers (for good reasons but with hindsight erroneously) kept their prices up at the artificially high, shortage fuelled 2010 levels, sales were dropping anyway, so the multiples, already having continuity of supply problems in 2010/11 simply delisted it as the number of units moving off the shelves dropped away to non viable. They asked for a price drop to re-invigour sales, but the beekeepers declined, in the belief the market would, sooner or later, need the honey at the level requested.
Now we have no multiple market worth speaking about for normal UK blossom honey (you are still OK if you can do specialities, especially non crystallising specialities) and hundreds of tonnes of last years still in stock and no serious buyers, even at a sharp discount from the prices earlier in the cycle. What is going to happen when 2012 crop lands on top of this? How do you get the multiples back and happy they can both have security of supply and that it will sell? Got 50 million tucked away to do a serious promotion effort? Got 10 years to do it (without sure success) by word of mouth and farmers markets?
Answer is simple I'm afraid, either 2012 has to be a crop failure or the price must readjust to its correct level, or perhaps even overadjust to get the clients buying again. Draw a graph of prices against years and draw a line through it. 2012 should settle, if average, in the region of 1.65/lb.
Of course there are many variables that could alter that that make crystal ball gazing a hazardous occupation, and the only real guarantee is that early season guesses MIGHT be approximate, but if accurate its just plain luck.
