We are slowly drowning in Ukrainian honey

The amount of Ukrainian imported honey exceeded the prescribed EU quota of more than 44,000 tons, so the European Commission (EC) has two weeks to start the process, as a result of which honey from Ukraine can once again arrive in the European Union (EU) only upon payment of customs duties, the Ministry of Agriculture announced ( AM) Sunday.

As it was written, for Hungarian beekeeping, which exports 10-20 thousand tons of honey to Western Europe every year, it is a key issue to improve our market opportunities there, since the extremely low-priced honey coming there from outside Europe has narrowed the sales opportunities on the foreign market and depressed domestic prices. .

According to the announcement, the EU measures that extended the import of Ukrainian products to the EU without customs duties and quantitative restrictions for one year until next June 5 came into effect at the beginning of June.

The so-called autonomous trade measure (ATM) provides access to the EU market for the Ukrainian economy, but at the same time, for the decisive action of the European agricultural sector, the EC introduced an emergency braking mechanism for particularly sensitive agricultural products, namely poultry, eggs, sugar, oats , for wheat, corn and honey.

According to this, if the import of these products exceeds the average of the import volumes recorded in the second half of 2021 and in the whole of 2022 and 2023, duties can be reimposed on honey products arriving in excess of this volume quota.

According to the information, the European Commission determined the quantity of honey that can be imported from Ukraine at a reduced rate of 0 percent duty at 44.4 thousand tons, and 17.3 percent duty is charged on items after the quota has been filled. So far, the emergency braking mechanism has been applied to oats, eggs and sugar.

Last year, 30 percent of the 163,000 tons of honey imported into the Union from third countries came from Ukraine, and more than half of this honey came to Germany, Poland and France. On the Western European markets, high-quality Hungarian honey has to compete with this price.

It was underlined that it is extremely important to keep the interests of consumers in mind, in this regard the EU honey labeling rules are being changed at the initiative of our country, therefore, from 2026 at the latest, all countries of origin must be indicated on the packaging of honey mixtures everywhere in the Union with percentages indicated.

As it was written, beekeeping is a key sector in Hungarian agriculture and Hungary - in a unique way in Europe - made beekeeping activities tax-free. Between 2023 and 2027, the sector, together with domestic funds, will receive targeted sector support of around 42.7 million euros.

For the first time in the EU, Hungary introduced animal welfare support for beekeepers, an amount equivalent to 15 euros per beehive per year, thereby helping to maintain healthy bee populations and the bee industry.

In addition, domestic beekeepers have been receiving a so-called bee health subsidy for 5 years, which beekeepers claim every year after 1 million bee colonies, amounting to HUF 1,000 per bee colony.