Hello Adony and Bee Friends,
 
I will trim my comments down to this one area to save the time it would
take to read my book if I hit on each point. I always seem to start out
by insulting everyone and I don't want to change at this late stage of
my beekeeping career so I will say that honey is like any other
"organic" product and if it is not handled properly it is "natural" for
it to go bad on the grocers shelves. I say this as for a long time in
the olden days of California the only difference between so called
"organic or natural" honey was that the real stuff (organic a la
natural) would get your hands sticky when you picked up the jar, and
more times then not you would be looking at a product in some degree of
crystallization and/or with some fermentation or separation of the
crystallized honey from the rest of the contents of the jar. That's
natural if the honey is not handled properly and not defined by what it
says on the label. Honey must be moisture adjusted, flash heated and
cooled to gain the needed shelf life in today's main stream retail
markets. The only other way it could be marketed is in the creamed form
which has not been widely accepted in the US market because of the way
we have developed our honey markets with visual standards and clear
glass containers of liquid gold. *(I know nothing is better then real
creamed white sweet clover with its natural cinnamon flavor.)
 
AM>4) Would organic beekeeping really command superior prices for hive
  >products ?
 
At the commercial honey producer level in the US market I don't think
that it would be easy if not impossible to recover the added costs for
a "certified organic honey" for economic and several regulatory reasons.
 
It must be remembered that some if not much of the honey imported into
the United States would come closer to being "organic produced" then the
norm for the US. And some of it, mainly South American meets some
standards that the average US beekeeper would be hard pressed to meet
because of differing demands of foreign markets that we no longer enter
with bulk honey.
 
The retail price of honey today is at all time highs, new consumers are
not buying honey because of it's relative high price. Total consumption
is NOT thought to be down, indicating most honey consumers are loyal to
honey as a natural sweetener and not as concerned as new consumers about
price. This is OK for our near future and "if" the US economy grows as
some are predicting because of increased government wage price fixing
programs and the possibility of a change in government philosophy, one
could expect that new consumers in the future will grow into the income
groups that can afford honey that continues to return a fair living for
all honey producers.
 
Another very big trend today in honey marketing that is also closing the
high price gap in consumption is the ethnic marketing of honey in the
west and I assume other areas. Most large retailers have separate ethnic
food sections. Food that can be identified with large ethnic groups
such as the Hispanic or the South American culture market are now
stocked with a growing shelf space for Honey which is being met by small
regional packers. This area is growing and may be limiting the shelf
space for "organic" and all other honey. Honey producers-packers in the
south west (Arizona to Texas) should be cultivating these markets as
they do produce much of the same honey that if labeled in Spanish as to
plant source would sell well in this expanding market. It is a premium
retail market, in fact some types of honey packs such as cut comb can
be found in the Hispanic food section and not in the regular honey area.
The pricing is close to the same or very close, (read below).
 
With honey in the major retail markets the wording on the label must not
indicated a difference between competing products if there is no
"real" difference in the product. (This would include ethnic and
religious labels.) This is not to keep anyone from paying more for the
honey they put in jars, or paying the preacher to bless it, its intended
to keep those who would only change the labels to match the market and
it does work in the large retail markets in California and elsewhere.
In effect if there is no difference between the cost of honey other
then the wording on the label you can not charge substantially more to
freeze out competition that may demonstrate some difference.
 
Tolerance has been made in the past for the words 100% "pure", "natural"
and "organic" by allowing only very minor retail price differences or
none at all. This would make it very hard to come into the market with a
so called "certified organic" honey at a substantial increase in price
if one were needed. Some states are very particular about honey and
including what plant source is indicated on the label, and do check for
pollen indicators representative of the source on the label along with
the color and flavor of the honey.
 
I want to say here that because the products in the super market number
in the thousands with many different regulatory codes to follow it is
quit clear that much honey reaches the retail level that is mis labeled
because the lack of enforcement. (This is only to stop the flow of
message traffic that will say that so and so has no problem using what
ever on his label.) In general food standards are both government and
consumer responsibilities and if the consumer does not question the label
on a mis-labeled product that product can get get by without enforcement
action for years. Sadly this is also true for add mixtures of honey and
sugars, and includes some very poor quality honey imported into this
country which are seldom checked for anything except to see that if any
tax's are due, that they are paid. As for chemical contamination of
domestic honey from what ever source, what little is done as far as
looking by the government can be counted on your fingers and toes in any
one year. Again they have a lot of food to look at, and only run limited
sampling of several hundred market basket products each year. Honey
like most food products is regulated for quality by the processors that
take the responsibility for quality control. Some food processors do
have 100% government inspection but most of this is centered around the
meat, poultry, now fish, and the cat/dog food industries. (The cat/dog
food gets in the act because in the USA it is common for a small but
significant percentage to end up as people food.) Next time you ask
your wife or mom "what's for dinner" and she answer's "doggy stew",
you will know to check first on the health of your dog that barks all
night and tears up her flowers, or look for that empty dog food can.<G>
 
I don't want to say there is no place for "certified organic produced"
honey, because I do think there is a market outside of the main stream
of retail sales, such as speciality stores, health and natural food
stores, farm stands, farmers markets, and what few local food stores
remain in this country. It may be that today in California which has
regulation to support "certified organic" food production there is
already a good market for the same kind of honey. The fact that I don't
know about it would indicate my ignorance or a relative small market, or
both.
 
                       ttul Andy-
 
 
 
(c) Permission is granted to freely copy this document
in ANY form, or to print for ANY use.
 
(w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk.
 
ENDOFFILE
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 ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ All bees are looking for bargains in nature's supermarket