Chronicle of raw materials

Honey from Ukraine: Europe will have to learn to live without it

Audio 01:45

The halt in honey exports from Ukraine is bad news, but the upheaval goes beyond that.

© CC0 Pixabay/Estelle Heitz

By: Marie-Pierre Olphand Follow

3 mins

Ukrainian honey is no exception.

Since the beginning of the war, exports have stopped.

However, Ukraine had become the second supplier of honey for Europe behind China.

The international market is preparing for major upheavals.

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Ukrainian beekeepers number nearly 300,000 and before the war exported more than three quarters of their production to Europe.

But the conflict has upset their activity.

Some have seen their factory or equipment destroyed.

The others wonder: will they be able to harvest rapeseed honey in the coming weeks?

And what will happen if sunflower sowing is not possible?

Sunflower honey is almost essential for making all-flower honeys and most creamy honeys. 

The cessation of exports is therefore bad news, but the upheaval goes beyond that.

“ 

 ,” predicts Eric Lelong, president of InterApi, the French interprofessional organization.

Another source of concern, the Polish origin could also come to miss, because most of the factories have branches in Ukraine, the volumes of honey sold by the Poles are also expected to fall. 

Argentina fallback market? 

Result, the tension on prices should very quickly be felt according to the French Interprofession.

Because since 2014, Ukraine has only increased its exports to Europe to become its second supplier, recalls Henri Clément, spokesperson for the Unaf union (National Union of French Beekeepers).

Purchases that will no longer be made in Ukraine will have to be made in China, which had lost market share in recent years, in Turkey perhaps, or in Argentina, the traditional fallback market.

But on the ground of Latin America, the United States are already big buyers.  

" 

 " explains Eric Lelong.

There is no honey price, but the European price is de facto indexed to the lowest import price outside Europe.

Entry-level Ukrainian honey at 2.50 euros per liter leads to French honey often one euro more expensive.

If the Argentinian price increases due to demand, the first German, Italian or French price will also rise by the same amount. 

Additional production costs that worry beekeepers 

For European beekeepers, this could have been a boon, as honey is expected to sell for more in the coming months.

But this gain is accompanied at the same time by a rise in fuel prices: a bee farmer who goes on transhumance in a truck with his colonies of insects can travel thousands of kilometers a year.

If he travels to make honey, he will be able to recover part of the cost of diesel from the sale price, but if he leaves to do pollination, from farmers under a contract already concluded in a fixed price, he will work almost at a loss, confides a beekeeper. 

Added to this is the increase in the price of beekeeping products, be it plastic hive bottoms, glass jars, or syrup made from wheat which is used to feed the bees at the start of the season.

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