Where Does Your Honey Come From, and Other Mysteries of the Worldwide Honey Business

By Eliza Ward

Yes, that little squeeze bear, as cute and innocent-looking as Pooh, may not be all that it’s cracked up to be.

Honey looks simple. Bees visit flowers. Bees make honey. Someone puts it in a jar. We put it in tea, drizzle it on yogurt, spoon it over cheese, or sneak it straight from the spoon when no one is looking.

But the worldwide honey business is not simple at all.

While honey production is tiny compared with sugar, the world still produces billions of pounds of honey every year. That makes honey a big business. And wherever there is big business, global trade, price pressure, blending, bulk shipping, and consumer trust all mixed together in one very sticky supply chain, there is room for trouble.

In the U.S., honey comes from a mix of domestic beekeepers and imported supply. There are many small beekeepers, sideline beekeepers, and local producers, but much of the honey that moves through conventional grocery and food manufacturing channels is handled at a much larger scale. It may be filtered, heated, blended, packed, and repacked. It may travel in drums before it ever gets anywhere near a retail jar or squeeze bottle.

If industrial processing were the only concern, then the choice would be fairly simple: modern convenience product or traditional, more carefully sourced honey.

But this is honey. And honey has a history.

Honey Became a Global Import Business

At some point during the latter half of the 20th century, some of the world’s biggest honey consumers, including the U.S. and the European Union, became less self-sufficient in honey production and began to rely more heavily on imports.

That trend has continued. U.S. honey production has declined over time, while imports have grown to fill the gap between what we produce and what we consume. Imported honey now plays a major role in the U.S. honey supply, especially for large packers, food manufacturers, and lower-priced retail blends.

Most imported honey travels in bulk. It may be shipped in drums, blended with honey from other countries, filtered, heated, and packed under labels that do not always tell the full story at first glance.

That does not automatically make imported honey bad. Some imported honeys are beautiful, distinctive, and carefully produced. We love honey from around the world. But it does mean that traceability matters.

When honey is bought, sold, blended, and moved through a long supply chain, the consumer is often several steps away from the beekeeper, the flowers, and the place where the bees did their work.

Dumping, Low Prices, and the Decline of Honey

During the 1990s and early 2000s, exports of low-priced bulk honey from countries including China and Argentina became a major concern for American honey producers. U.S. producers argued that some imported honey was being sold at unfairly low prices, a practice known as dumping.

Dumping refers to selling a product in an export market at less than fair value, often in a way that harms domestic producers. In the honey world, the concern was that very low-priced imported honey depressed the market and made it harder for domestic beekeepers and honest producers to compete.

In 2001, the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed anti-dumping duties on honey imports from Argentina and China. The goal was to offset unfair pricing and protect the domestic industry.

But honey is not just honey in a jar. It is a global commodity. And when duties go up in one place, supply chains have a way of bending, shifting, and finding new routes.

The Transshipment Problem

After anti-dumping duties were imposed on Chinese honey, investigators and industry groups became concerned about transshipment. In simple terms, that means honey from one country may be shipped through another country, relabeled or misdeclared, and then exported as if it came from somewhere else.

This matters because country of origin affects tariffs, labeling, price, and consumer trust.

If honey produced in one country is routed through another country to avoid duties or hide its origin, the label no longer tells the truth. And once the label stops telling the truth, the consumer has no fair way to know what they are buying.

That was one of the major lessons from the early-2000s honey trade investigations: origin matters, but origin can be obscured when bulk honey moves through a long and opaque supply chain.

Adulteration: When Honey Is Not Really Honey

Then there is the even stickier problem: adulteration.

Real honey is the sweet substance bees make from nectar or plant secretions, transformed and stored in the honeycomb. Once cheaper sweeteners are added, it is no longer simply honey.

For years, one of the major concerns was that honey was being cut with high-fructose corn syrup. That concern was not imaginary, but the fraud problem has evolved. Modern honey adulteration may involve syrups made from rice, wheat, sugar beet, corn, cane, or other sources. Some syrups are designed to mimic honey closely enough that simple tests may not catch them.

This is why honey fraud is so attractive. Real honey is expensive to produce. Sugar syrups are cheap. And if someone can add cheap syrup to honey, or sell syrup as honey, the profit incentive is obvious.

It is also why good testing matters. And why testing is difficult.

Regulators in the U.S., the EU, and elsewhere continue to monitor honey for economically motivated adulteration, which is the official term for food fraud done for financial gain. In plain English: someone is trying to cheat.

The Antibiotic Contamination Story

There is another reason honey traceability became such a major issue in the early 2000s.

During investigations into imported Chinese honey, officials found residues of chloramphenicol, a powerful antibiotic not approved for use in food-producing animals in the U.S. Chloramphenicol residues in food are a serious regulatory concern, and contaminated shipments were detained or recalled.

Canada also issued warnings and recalls involving honey of Chinese origin and products made with contaminated honey. This was not just a pricing issue anymore. It became a food-safety and traceability issue.

It is important to be fair here: this does not mean all honey from one country is bad, or that imported honey should be dismissed automatically. But it does show what can happen when honey moves through opaque supply chains and buyers cannot easily trace where it came from, how it was produced, or what happened to it along the way.

Why Cheap Honey Is Worth Questioning

Honey is labor-intensive. Bees have to gather nectar. Beekeepers have to care for colonies, manage harvests, extract honey, handle it properly, and get it into jars. Weather, drought, wildfire, disease, mites, poor forage, and colony losses can all affect production.

So when honey is very cheap, it is fair to ask why.

Maybe it is a large-scale blended product. Maybe it is heavily filtered and heat-treated for convenience. Maybe it is perfectly legal, but not particularly interesting. Maybe it is a loss leader. Maybe it is a blend of honeys from multiple countries. Or maybe, in the worst cases, it is not entirely honey.

The point is not that every squeeze bottle is suspicious. The point is that honey should not be treated like a generic sweetener with a cute label.

Real honey has origin. Real honey has floral source. Real honey has texture, aroma, color, seasonality, and character. It should taste like more than sugar.

How to Read a Honey Label

If you want better honey, start with the label.

Look for a clear country of origin. Better yet, look for region, floral source, beekeeper, producer, or importer information. “Product of more than one country” is not automatically bad, but it tells you less than a honey tied to a specific place.

Look for words like raw, unfiltered, strained, single-origin, estate, monofloral, wildflower, forest, mountain, chestnut, lavender, acacia, heather, thyme, buckwheat, or orange blossom—but remember that words alone are not proof. They mean more when they come from a producer or shop you trust.

Also notice the texture. Real honey may crystallize. It may be cloudy. It may be thick, creamy, or slow-moving. It may change over time. That is not necessarily a flaw. In fact, it can be a sign that the honey has not been over-processed into perfect sameness.

⮞ Read our article on honey crystallization 

Buy from People You Trust

The moral of this story is simple and obvious: know where your honey comes from, and buy from people you trust.

With honey, as with many food products, you often get what you pay for. If it is cheap, anonymous, and packed in a squeeze bottle, think twice and read the label carefully. If it is a blend, look for origin information. If the origin is vague, ask questions. If the honey has a producer, a place, a floral source, or a story, that is usually a better place to begin.

At ChefShop, we are drawn to honey that tastes like somewhere. Honey that carries the memory of blossoms, trees, fields, forests, mountains, and weather. Honey that is not just sweet, but aromatic, textured, and alive with place.

Because the real question is not only “Is this honey?”

The better question is: “Whose honey is this, where did it come from, and why does it taste this way?”

That is where honey gets interesting.

⮞ See our selection of raw honeys from around the world

⮞ Next read: Why Is My Honey Crystallized?

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does honey origin matter?

Honey origin matters because floral source, region, climate, season, and handling all affect flavor, aroma, color, texture, and quality. Origin also matters for traceability. The more clearly honey is sourced, the easier it is to know what you are buying.

What is honey adulteration?

Honey adulteration happens when something is added to honey, or substituted for honey, in a way that misrepresents the product. The most common concern is undeclared cheaper sweeteners, such as syrups made from rice, wheat, corn, cane, beet, or other sources.

Is imported honey bad?

No. Imported honey can be excellent. Some of the world’s most distinctive honeys come from outside the United States. The issue is not import versus domestic. The issue is traceability, honesty, quality, and whether the label gives you enough information to trust the product.

What does “product of more than one country” mean on honey?

It usually means the honey is a blend of honeys from multiple origins. That is not automatically bad, but it is less specific than honey from a named beekeeper, region, floral source, or country.

How can I tell if honey is real?

There is no simple home test that reliably proves honey authenticity. The best practical steps are to buy from trusted producers and retailers, look for clear origin information, avoid suspiciously cheap anonymous honey, and pay attention to flavor, aroma, and texture.

Is crystallized honey fake?

No. Crystallization is natural and does not mean honey is fake or spoiled. Many raw and minimally filtered honeys crystallize over time, depending on floral source, sugar balance, temperature, and storage.

⮞ Shop for honey

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