Honey Laundering: The Latest Industry Struggle

The last I heard, which was a year or more ago, imported honey had driven down the prices so much that it wasn't worth large-scale beekeepers' time to harvest and sell it. Evidently, things have changed. The Dept. of Homeland Security (!) raided a  Washington state honey producer, looking for contraband.

In the U.S., where bee colonies are dying off and demand for imported honey is soaring, traders of the thick amber liquid are resorting to elaborate schemes to dodge tariffs and health safeguards in order to dump cheap honey on the market, a five-month Seattle P-I investigation has found.

This should help responsible local honey producers, many of whom already are getting a premium for their  honey.

Read about it here from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Honey Laundering -- International Trade Increasingly Rife with Crime.

And don't forget the bee club's regularly scheduled meeting, January 13 (the second Tuesday of the month) at the Rotary Wildlife Center at Lake Merritt.