This is how Ukrainian and Chinese honey floods Hungary: it’s true, it’s not always honey

From recent data, it can also be clearly seen that domestic shelves are increasingly being flooded with cheap Ukrainian and Chinese honeys, but the average consumer price of domestic honeys has never been as high as it is now, and according to expert forecasts, prices will continue to rise. It is no coincidence that the number of honey counterfeiting scandals in Hungary has increased significantly in recent years due to the combination of these effects. After all, there should be a person on his feet who can tell which honey is real and which is fake with his own sensory examination.

In 2021, EU Member States imported 173,400 natural honeys (“honey”) from non-EU countries worth €405.9 million. In contrast, EU member states exported only 25,500 tonnes outside the EU in 2021. The export value was 146.6 million euros. This trend is consistent with what has been experienced in recent years, namely that imports are constantly increasing while exports are decreasing. Compared to 2016, honey imports from outside the EU increased by 7 percent, while EU exports to countries outside the EU decreased by 10 percent, according to Eurostat’s latest data series.