Campaign Launched to Combat the Spread of Fake Honey
This year’s campaign to promote honey consumption has been launched, with a focus on linden honey. At a press conference in Budapest to launch the campaign, the State Secretary for Agriculture and Rural Development said that around 10,000 tons of high quality domestic honey are consumed in Hungary.
Zsolt Feldman recalled that the honey produced in Europe is sufficient for about 60 percent of European consumption, and that this shortage used to give Hungarian honey production a good backing. In recent years, however, cheap honey and honey counterfeits from outside the European Union have become more widespread, causing considerable damage to the Hungarian beekeeping sector that produces quality honey.
The State Secretary said that it was particularly important to increase the consumption of Hungarian honey, which is also supported by the campaign now being launched. He pointed out that a lot depends on the consumers, on whether they buy honey directly from producers or choose 100 percent domestically produced honey in grocery stores. “Consumers can do the most for their own health and for Hungarian beekeeping and its future,” he said.
He stressed that the government is taking action with its own means, recalling that it took years to achieve clarity on the labeling of honey mixtures from different countries in the European Union.
Péter Ondré, CEO of Agrármarketing Centrum (Agricultural Marketing Center), said that they have been organizing campaigns to promote honey consumption since 2018. He said that out of the 10,000 tons consumed in Hungary, around 6,000 are sold directly by producers. During the November-December period, they will promote the benefits of linden honey, which can be bought directly from producers and is not available from commercial chains.
During the campaign, the center wants to draw attention to the fact that producers’ honeys have different flavors and health benefits, therefore it is worth getting to know the more special varieties.
Péter Bross, President of the National Hungarian Beekeepers’ Association (OMME), said that this year’s campaign will focus mainly on linden honey, the only honey of its kind in Hungary that comes from the silver linden tree, a native plant.
According to the Agricultural Marketing Center, currently 20,000 beekeepers are producing honey in Hungary, with 1.2 million hives. The density of bees in Hungary is 13 hives per square kilometer, the highest in the world. The amount of honey produced is 25,000 tons per year, with 10,000 tons consumed in Hungary every year.
