Tragic honey harvest: acacia honey has practically disappeared this year

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 06. 12. 11:37

This season brought the worst acacia honey harvest in the past 2-3 decades. The reasons are complex: the massive winter bee colony loss, the severe frosts preceding the acacia blossoming, and the unfavorable weather experienced during the blossoming all contributed to the disappointing results – Péter Bross, president of the National Hungarian Beekeeping Association (OMME), told Agroinform.hu.

Half as many bee colonies

Instead of the usual 1.2 million, Hungarian beekeepers were able to start this season with only 600-700 thousand bee colonies. Experts see the significant population decline primarily in the increasing resistance to the active ingredients against the varroa mite that attacks bees. A significant part of the preserved stock was used by farmers not for honey production, but for reproduction: however, if a bee colony is divided into two or three parts, it can no longer produce properly.

The frost took away the flowers in April

The severe frosts that struck in the first half of April caused great damage to the budding acacias: more than half of the approximately 500 thousand hectares of Hungarian acacia forests froze – mainly in the valleys and plains of the central mountains.

Cold weather, zero production

The third and perhaps most critical factor was that cold and rainy weather prevailed almost the entire time during the flowering period. The daytime maximums barely reached 15 °C, and at night the air cooled down to 1-2 degrees. In this cold, the plants do not produce nectar, despite the bees flying in vain. Because of this, half of the country’s beekeepers were unable to extract any honey by the end of May – neither acacia nor other flower honey. The little acacia honey that was produced at all was mainly found in Western Hungary, in the counties of Győr-Moson-Sopron, Vas, Zala and West Somogy. In the eastern, central and southern regions of the country, such as Nyírség or Bács-Kiskun, there was almost a complete failure.

“Due to the shortage, producer prices are certain to rise, and anyone who wants good quality Hungarian acacia honey should buy it now, because there is so little production that there is a fear that they will not be able to get it later,” warns Péter Bross. “Store prices are rather stagnant, as they have not followed the decline in purchase prices for two years, but this is not a determining factor: 90 percent of acacia honey is now purchased directly from the producer, and store sales are negligible.”