Hello All,
I commend Joe Graham (editor ABJ)  as I have before for giving all sides of
a subject equal time.

The article " Examining the Chinese Chloramphenicol honey Contamination
Issue from the Chinese point of View" in the August  issue of the American
Bee Journal (vol. 144 no. 8) will not be received well by American
beekeepers but we are all beekeepers and as such we have got beekeeping in
common.

Actually I respect the Apicultural Science Association of China (ASAC) quite
a bit for the work they are doing in many areas.

  When the average beekeeper reads the article he/she quickly sees the door
is about to open and the flood of low priced Chinese is headed for the U.S..
It is also interesting that on page 632 the Chinese say around 20,000 metric
tons of *ultrafiltered honey* have already flowed into the U.S. What
happened to the U.F. honey which was ultrafiltered to remove chloramphenicol
which entered the U.S. ?

If you read further on the same page the ASCA says the need to ultrafilter
honey before shipment will resolve itself because they are no longer using
chloramphenicol in their bee yards many times on a daily basis.

The ASCA also states they feel the U.K & the U.S. unfairly barred their
honey tainted with chloramphenicol. The ASCA said the amount was so low the
health risk was small. Small or not what could be the long term health
risks? I guess we will find out in 20 or so years as millions of tons of
chloramphenicol contaminated honey was sold in stores in China I have been
told!

When given a choice I would select the bottle without the chloramphenicol
contamination every time. Of course I have been told the Chinese consumer
was never told the honey had traces of  chloramphenicol.

The ASCA says in the article there are two sides to every story. I can not
speak for all U.S. beekeepers but I believe I understand the American
beekeepers take on the problem.

 Short version:
Not long ago ( 4-5 years) I walked through several warehouses  of drums of
U.S. honey. I asked the beekeeper why he was sitting on such a large amount
of honey. I realized the honey price at the time was low ( around .60 a
pound). He said that he had not been able to find a buyer at even close to
the .60 cent range. All the buyers were  stocked up with Chinese honey  at
quite a bit lower price.

Will these days return?

The ideal situation would be a fair price paid by packers for U.S. honey and
fill the gap between U.S. production and demand with honey from other
countries.

China & Argentina beekeepers  can not  supply the hives needed in the U.S.
for pollination. Many orchards have already closed their doors for lack of
pollination.

Simply put many packers  could care less if pollination gets done as long as
they make a huge profit by sales of foreign honey.

I am afraid the only solution is for each  of us to  spread the word to only
buy honey in stores which has product of U.S. ( or your own country) on the
label . Support those packers which buy and sell only U.S. honey.  The price
per jar most likely will be higher but you will be  supporting the U.S.
beekeeper! Do we really want to see closed signs on orchards  all over the
U.S. which produce crops pollinated by honeybees?

As long as the Chinese see the U.S. as the place to dump millions of tons of
cheap honey and packers are around which are not interested in the survival
of the U,S. beekeeper and    pollination you will see less and less
commercial beekeepers. Orchards will continue to close their doors.

The best way to combate   foreign honey is to buy honey  which is a product
of your country *first*! Educate your friends and neighbors to support your
local beekeeper!
We need to enforce label of origin and by doing so create a demand of U.S.
honey!
many beekeepers bad mouth all store honey which is the wrong approach in my
opinion. We need to simply get the consumer to only buy honey which is
produced in the U.S. for the simple reason of keeping the U.S. beekeeper
solvent  so pollination will get  done AND FORCING PACKERS TO BUY U.S. HONEY
TO SELL WITH THE *PRODUCT OF U.S. LABEL*.
Thanks for your time to listen to the U.S. beekeeper side of the issue!
Subscribe to the U.S. bee mags to stay up on the issues! Read the August ABJ
article!
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

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