Hungary urges the tightening of honey labeling rules in Brussels

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At the meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council on January 30, the agriculture ministers of twenty EU member states asked the European Commission to strictly regulate the origin of honey mixtures on the European market.

There is a clear demand from producers and consumers for the exact indication of the countries of origin of the honeys that make up the honey mixtures

That is why Hungary has been pushing for many years to amend the directive on honey, which the European Commission plans to propose this year. According to our experience, mixtures of dubious origin and quality, mainly from third countries, pose a serious threat to European beekeepers and also undermine consumer confidence in honey. We are convinced that it is in vain to talk about the protection of pollinators in Europe and to impose rules for agricultural production for this purpose, if the European Union does not protect its own honey products and beekeepers on the other side. If products of dubious origin and quality called honey from third countries displace European honey from the markets, biodiversity will be lost, consumers will lose, and beekeepers who maintain bee colonies will end their activities due to the lack of adequate income. We trust that the European Commission will hear the voice of the majority of the member states and will make a sufficiently ambitious proposal that takes into account real consumer needs – stressed State Secretary Zsolt Feldman.

AM