The market for honey slowed for a while, and I guess the Argentine crop is still unknown; Feb 8 in the Argentine is like Aug 8 here, and still early for a good estimate. Nonetheless, prices continue firm. A broker told me yesterday that he had turned down an offer to purchase at $1.60 US in expectation of higher prices. Meanwhile, a number of Canadian packers are meeting in Ottawa and I'm told that, among other things, they are trying to figure out how to limit and reduce the prices paid to beekeepers. Over this past season, the offers from those in that group have been amazingly similar from one to another, but I know they would not be price fixing, because that would be illegal. With better communication between beekeepers, buyers are finding it tough to fool the beekeepers and it is worrying them. Some of these buyers still manage to find a few beekeepers who are out of touch and buy cheap -- I've seen it happen -- but with the internet and hotlines like the Mid-US hotline (1-763-658-4193) more beekeepers know what the market price is, and the old tricks do not work as well. Claims of retail buyer resistance made by some packers' are not being met with much belief or sympathy, either, since beekeepers can find out the facts. As always, some accounts are changing hands, and some, like MacDonald's, are switching from honey to something else, but this last item is due to concerns about honey quality in the wake of the Chinese chlorampenicol recall (caused by their own policy of buying the cheapest), not price. Apparently some packers are losing business, but others are doing just fine. While some packers are complaining about the price, these others are realizing that the (revenue) size of their business just doubled! Margins may not be what they were, but the profits are still there for the smart ones and will creep back up. The current price bump is due to quality problems with Chinese honey. In the near future, we are going to see increased demands for quality assurance and smart beekeepers are starting to think about better record keeping and diverting some of the windfalls of this past season towards improving facilities and moving in the direction of HACCP. When the current countervail actions wear off, the only factor that will keep prices up for the beekeeper is quality assurance. Volume buyers and packers -- and their insurance companies -- are going to want proof that what happened with Chinese honey does not happen again. In five years, I predict that beekeepers who cannot provide convincing documentation of their management and handling practices may not be able to sell honey in any developed country. allen http://www.honeybeeworld.com