Around this time in 2001 the US decides to impose tariffs on Chinese honey imports.
The Chinese respond with a technique of concealing the country of honey’s origin and a war, which has degraded honey quality worldwide, begins.
China is the No1 honey producer in the world
Half of the world’s honey produced is China.
The USA is the No1 consumer of honey in the world. Most of the USA market is controlled by China.
The Chinese have always sold honey at exorbitant prices. Imagine that in Piraeus, Greece it arrives at 1€/kg.
Honey is found in many foods
And the difference in quality may be obvious in the jar, but don’t forget that honey is used as an ingredient in many foods.
In pastels and other sweets, in breakfast cereals, sauces, drinks, etc.
In this market sector Chinese are unbeatable and you should know that any product that says it has honey in it, is 99% Chinese.
The American reaction
On the other hand, the Americans did not produce any excellent honey to match the quality, so with the game being played purely on price, they lost the market very easily.
So the US government, in order to keep the domestic product competitive, is making a landmark decision.
It imposes tariffs on imports of Chinese honey.
The Chinese response to the tariffs on their honey
The Chinese respond by perfecting a process of super-filtering the honey, which removes all the pollen grains from within, making both botanical and geographical origin impossible.
In any check it is impossible to identify not only the country but also the type of honey.
They then started to move the honey through third countries and of course without any customs duties..
Among these countries is Greece.
Pollen grains in honey
The pollen grains have a size ranging from 10 to 100 µm depending on the plant. Using machinery known as Zero Micron Filtration they have managed to pass honey through holes whose dimension is less than 1μm!
To understand the red blood cells in our blood have a dimension of 6-8 µm! They managed to do this with resin technology.
By a process where honey is heated, water is added to it (to make it more fluid) and then removed by artificial dehydration.
In China it is not forbidden to add or remove foreign substances to honey.
They have even managed to remove the residues of antibiotic drugs, which are also allowed in China and have been a constant obstacle to their exports over the past decades.
Now this “honey” is slow to crystallize, undetectable, drug-free and cheap, making it an excellent raw material for blends…
Consequences for honey consumers
Anyone can now mix Chinese honey with Greek honey and market it as Greek.
In any inspection either in the EU or in the USA it will appear as Greek as it will contain pollen grains only from Greek plants.
But heat treated honey is degraded as its enzymes, antibacterial activity and nutritional value is destroyed.
The winners of this war are the blend packers, who are also the ones who control the honey industry.
1 ton of Chinese honey + 1 ton of Thyme = 2 ton of thyme honey?
Source:
Beezfarm Honey
