Fake honey seized

[domino]

Fake honey hail reported in the US. Shame there isn't a kite mark system for honey production in the UK. It would drive up honey prices as these large scale importers of honey flavored syrup wouldn't be able to flog it off as actual honey

 

[hedgerow pete]

and who is going to pay for the costs of all the testings, samples, etc etc etc, be careful of what you wish for, when you cant sell your honey as its soooooo expensive due to testing samples, where as a big firm will have the benifit of cheap rates ect and there fore your honey £20 a jar, Tesco honey £3 a jar

 

[ichbinpaul]

Pete we are Legislationed up to the gunnles and beyond, which has Only served to stealth tax us all for opening our worried mouths, all we can do really is edumacate people.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Fake honey hail reported in the US.

660 barrels of Chinese honey confiscated by ICE agents in Houston that were labeled as originating from Latvia.​

Honey Laundering!

Why do they make so much effort for something that will probably be sold cheaply. Would it cost more to ship it than the market value?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

660 barrels of Chinese honey confiscated by ICE agents in Houston that were labeled as originating from Latvia.​

Honey Laundering!

Why do they make so much effort for something that will probably be sold cheaply. Would it cost more to ship it than the market value?

Well the Australians thought it was worthwhile when they were exporting Chinese honey to the US labelled Australian honey.

 

[REDWOOD]

Funny honey

 

[dpearce4]

makes you wonder what the USA knows about Chinese honey that the UK doesn't. If its banned there would have thought it should be here to.

 

[Hivemaker.]

makes you wonder what the USA knows about Chinese honey that the UK doesn't. If its banned there would have thought it should be here to.

It is not banned, they were caught trying to circumnavigate the tax by claiming it was from another country.

Chinese honey is subject to a 221 percent import tax in the U.S., meant to keep American honey competitive on the domestic market. Brokers of Chinese honey may try to disguise the origin of their import to evade the tax. In November 2013, agents at the Houston port seized $4.2 million of Chinese honey falsely labeled as Indian and Malaysian and arrested one Houston area man.

http://www.chron.com/houston/article/Feds-confiscate-2-5-worth-of-Chinese-honey-from-6046057.php

 

[domino]

and who is going to pay for the costs of all the testings, samples, etc etc etc, be careful of what you wish for, when you cant sell your honey as its soooooo expensive due to testing samples, where as a big firm will have the benifit of cheap rates ect and there fore your honey £20 a jar, Tesco honey £3 a jar

Fair point.

 

[Michael Palmer]

China ruined our honey sales by dumping honey on us for years. Dumping means selling their honey for less than production costs. They did that to us for years. Before that, they sold us honey contaminated with chloramphenicol antibiotic. They did the same to you and you banned the importation of Chinese honey.

Our honey prices were in the toilet before the contaminated honey problem, with bulk honey going for $.50/lb. They sent us something like 200 million pounds a year. When the Chinese honey was stopped, our prices rose to $1.50/lb.

Then they began dumping on us, and the prices dropped again. We sued them through the WTO and our industry won. A duty of as much as $2.50/lb. was added onto the price of Chinese and there were no more importations, until this illegal, transshipping. The incident above is only one of many that has been stopped. The illegal importers have been fined millions of dollar and some are now in prison. Our prices for bulk honey are now well above $2.00/lb.

Anyway, that's the rest of the story.

 

[dpearce4]

shame we dont do the same here Michael then maybe as a country we would have a manufacturing base still. let alone food sold at the price it costs to produce.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Thanks for the background information HM and Mike.

 

[Torq]

Nearly every jar of honey for sale in Tesco is labeled "a blend of EU and nonEU honey" god only knows where it comes from!

 

[alldigging]

Nearly every jar of honey for sale in Tesco is labeled "a blend of EU and nonEU honey" god only knows where it comes from!

Should we all email and ask?

 

[dpearce4]

don't bother they wouldn't say its "commercially sensitive" information, would have better luck asking the ombudsman that's investigating Tesco.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Nearly every jar of honey for sale in Tesco is labeled "a blend of EU and nonEU honey" god only knows where it comes from!

That is because of the honey labeling laws i would think.

 

[Michael Palmer]

That is because of the honey labeling laws i would think.

And here, that's what we've been trying to change. Fair labeling practices. We have on our labels...

USDA Grade A. Has nothing to do with country of origin. Has to do with grading of honey...color, viscosity, etc. This in a bold font on the front of the label. Somewhere else on the container...usually hidden somewhere in a very small font, on the back of the jar, is something like

"Product of US, Argentina, and/or other countries" What do you think "And/or other countries" mean? China!

So we all think that the country of origin should be right below USDA Grade A in the same font. I expect it will eventually be that way, and when that way the consumer can make an informed decision on which jar of honey they will choose. Don't you think most UK consumers would choose UK honey? I would think so.

 

[BeeJayBee]

It's how a lot of food producers get round the country of origin thing. They buy in bulk from overseas and then process within the 'home' country, which means they can label it as home produced. Bit of a con, really.

 

[Michael Palmer]

But you do have some type of labeling law. When I was at the National, I met a gentleman in the lobby of The Ship Hotel. We had a nice conversation. His job...I think he worked for the government but not exactly sure...was to identify country (region) of origin by identifying the pollen fingerprint. He told me a story of a beekeeper who was selling local honey in the London area who was accused of mis-labeling his honey as to country of origin. He identified the pollen and was convinced it couldn't be from England as the pollen in the honey was from a tree that doesn't grow in the UK. When he realized that the bees were near a source of a planting of that tree...I think it was Kew Gardens...he showed that the beekeeper actually DID make that honey locally.

So, it works both ways.