By RON PHIPPS - Apiservices
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
by RON PHIPPS Introduction honey. TR is a hero to all who value “Year of the Bee.” The essential role “From a banana I could carve a authenticity. bees play in food security and ecologi- stronger backbone than his.” Teddy We need to understand that adul- cal sustainability has been recognized. Roosevelt, the first American to win teration is not just adding extraneous Demand for authentic honey is a Nobel Prize, said of Supreme Court adulterants but includes processes increasing and supply is decreasing. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. that preclude the complex interaction Some buyers are now paying over It was Teddy Roosevelt’s courage of botanical and zoological life forms the market price to secure supply that created the U.S. Food and Drug which create honey. All the modes of because they know prices will rise Administration to assure the authen- adulteration and their detection must further. A famous spice buyer once ticity, purity and safety of the food be understood. said to me, “We need assurance of supply and drug supply. It was TR We are on the verge of the final- supply. We can’t put a nickel in a tin who had the courage to oppose the ization of the U.S. Pharmacopeia of cinnamon.” violation of antitrust statutes by mo- standard, which was recommended Prices paid to U.S. beekeepers in nopolies and cartels, which colluded by Professor Michael Roberts to the November of 2020 ($1.40-2.00/lb. as and conspired to control markets and American beekeeping industry. Le- reported in the National Honey Re- standards and reduce competition, gal experts on Food Fraud and Eco- port) contrast sharply with the rising disrupting the legitimate interests of nomically Motivated Adulteration retail prices of 2020 which reached the American people. (EMA) have recommended new a 5-year high of $8.09/lb. in May. To escape the horrendous heat and types of contracts and more intru- During the past six years the general humidity of Washington, DC, Presi- sive and comprehensive traceability trend has been that selling prices of dent Roosevelt spent summers on regimes. retailers and packers have increased Long Island. The building which was International governments and while the prices to beekeepers and TR’s “Summer White House” during organizations are recognizing that honey exporters were collapsing. his Presidency now houses a res- the phenomena of Food Fraud and By mid-autumn 2020, authen- taurant named “Wild Honey.” TR’s EMA arose through collusion and tic honey was sold at over $2.00/ face is carved on Mount Rushmore conspiracy. lb. ($4.40/kg). Canadian honey has in South Dakota with the faces of gone to some packers at $2.08/lb. Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. A sea change Forward contracts for Argentine South Dakota is the world’s center A Sea Change occurs in the year honey are already based upon $1.81- of production of high quality clover which has been designated as the 2.09/lb. Argentine exporters have Chart 1 U.S. Retail Honey Prices by Month February 2021 1
ket at low prices.
Concurrent with the increased de-
mand and the short supply of authen-
tic honey, the dangers in trafficking in
adulterated honey are dramatically
increasing.
A favorable confluence
Governments and judicial systems
in Europe and North America are
increasingly aware of the emergence
during the past decade of the national
and international collusions to estab-
lish cartels and monopolies which are
detrimental to the interests of both
producers and consumers. Such car-
tels seek to police themselves. Such
monopolistic behavior is noted by
economists as well.
The U.S. Pharmacopeia is finalizing
their important and strong standard
for honey. It is anticipated that this
Chart 2 Average Honey Import Price per Pound 2020 and 2019 will be finalized by the end of Janu-
ary 2021. Numerous comments have
reported how the beekeepers are de- crazy physical long hours to be been submitted by diverse interests
manding increasingly higher prices. able to stay in this worthwhile within the industry. The statement
Argentine beekeepers are already business they love.” was strong, and while it may be en-
being paid 40% higher than in 2020. hanced, we anticipate that it will
A surge in prices for organic honey Chris calculates the cost of keep- remain strong. The document is a ful-
had also begun. Organic honey from ing 7,000-8,000 hives, writing that fillment of Roberts’ advocacy in his
Brazil has been sold to North Amer- “the feed increases and cost of labor first White Paper concerning honey
ica at $2.05/lb. increases … [and] the American bee- fraud (www.apiservices.biz).
Graphs provided by Dr. Stan Da- keeper just keeps plodding along Apimondia’s Statement on Honey
berkow and published in the ABJ with the increases in expenses.” Fraud, which came out in Janu-
(September 2020) showed the increase The contradiction between hugely ary 2020, will likely remain in place
in retail honey prices and in the pack- increasing “honey” exports, stable in 2021. These two documents will
ers’ prices, whereas the prices paid to numbers of beehives, and significant greatly contribute to the movement
beekeepers collapsed over the past 6 declines in productivity per hive, to ensure the authenticity of honey
years, especially the past 3 years. has, in the words of Prof. Michael products. Dr. Stan Daberkow, emeri-
In the autumn newsletter of the Roberts, rendered the beekeepers tus economist of the U.S. Depart-
American Honey Producers Associa- an “Endangered Species.” The Api- ment of Agriculture, has stressed that
tion, Chris Hiatt described how the mondia Regional Commission of the standards for agricultural products
cost of production of American honey Americas and the Apimondia Sci- should be independent of their ul-
went up for his beekeeping opera- entific Commission of Beekeeping timate use. That is correct and it im-
tions by 250% from 2008 to 2019. He Economy calculated that during the plies these should apply to the retail,
also stated: past 5 years the cumulative losses manufacturing, food service, cosmetic
to beekeepers are $1 billion. As the and pharmaceutical industries.
“Honey prices paid to bee- U.S. import statistics illustrate (see There are new efforts to define
keepers have not kept pace with Chart 2), the collapse of prices per- proper modes of production of honey.
the rise at the retail level, and sisted through the first 9 months of Dr. Jeff Pettis, formerly of the USDA’s
two years ago for the first time 2020. The authors of the Apimondia research sector, and current Presi-
the National Agricultural Sta- report estimate that the cumulative dent of Apimondia, gave the Keynote
tistics Services [NASS] reported losses during the past 6 years have speech at the AHPA’s annual confer-
that pollination passed honey now reached $1.35 billion. When con- ence, which was transmitted by video
for beekeeper income. My fam- sideration is given to Hiatt’s point in December 2020. Dr. Pettis’ speech
ily’s company keeps our hive regarding increased costs of produc- was entitled “Bees, Food Fraud and
numbers up by making nucs tion, the cumulative losses to bee- Hope.” He pointed out that the pro-
after almonds in California and keepers are approximately $2 billion duction of unripened, immature, high
again after apples in Washing- over the past 6 years! A Sea Change moisture honey represents an illicit
ton. Queens do not live as long is imperative. mode of production. He described
as they used to. The varroa/ The magnitude of these losses to how Chinese beekeepers extract the
virus complex, mite treatments, beekeepers has spurred persistent honey from the frame the day of pro-
nosema, are all very hard on the and recurrent reports and rumors of duction and then send it on its jour-
queens. We replace close to 80% the launching of a new antidump- ney to factories.
every year. Many beekeepers I ing suit against the imported honey The apiservices website, which is
know are struggling and work which has been flooding the U.S. mar- widely read, has a description about a
2 American Bee Journal
meeting between French beekeepers
and Chinese honey exporters, when
the Chinese mocked the French meth-
ods of producing authentic honey
since they did not produce the huge
quantities with a low cost of produc-
tion which allow the Chinese to re-
ceive enormous profits.
At Apimondia, some Chinese
honey producers described that 95%
of Chinese honey is extracted as im-
mature honey with moisture content
of about 45%. In a recent conference,
another Chinese expert referenced
that 90% is immature honey. The Chi-
nese themselves call this “feng mei
shui” or “water honey.” This mode
of production has been exported,
along with Chinese resin technology,
to at least two major honey exporters
in Asia. Some of those exporters, as
the chart below illustrates, are highly
dependent upon the U.S. market and
have great difficulties exporting to Chart 3 Percentage of Total Honey Exports Destined to the U.S.
other markets. The virtue from the
point of view of the fraudsters of that portant work with the United Nations food fraud criminology. Various in-
mode of production, which is a mode Food and Agricultural Organization. ternational organizations, not just
which has been witnessed by many Since food fraud is an international the judicial system, are integrating
western members of the honey indus- problem, involving collusions and adulteration and criminology. In ad-
try, is it can produce huge quantities conspiracies on an international level, dition to the academic world the is-
of honey and do so at a very low cost the solutions must be international in sue of food fraud has appeared in the
of production. nature. mass media including the BBC, Net-
Dr. Pettis quoted from an article by Recently an important and timely flix ("Rotten"), Vice, the Australian
Etienne Bruneau, which included the book has been published, “Food press, news reports in the U.K. and
dramatic illustration of the astonish- Fraud: A Global Threat With Public India in late 2020. Undoubtedly more
ing growth of exports from Asia and Health and Economic Consequences” revelations await publication. Dr. Pe-
the modest increase in the number of (ed. Rosalee S. Hellberg, Elsevier ter Awram writes, in his paper “The
beehives (Chart 4). 2020), which includes a chapter on History of Honey Fraud” (The British
What is consistent with the descrip- honey fraud by Prof. Norberto Garcia Bee Journal, June 2020), “The interna-
tion of honey in Codex, Apimondia, and Dr. Stephan Schwarzinger. The tional traffic of adulterated honey has
and the efforts of the U.S. Pharmaco- development of international food increased to unsustainable propor-
peia is the principle that honey must fraud law is inclusive of analytic de- tions in recent years.”
be extracted only when it is fully tection methods and strategies for A series of podcasts on the use of
ripened and mature. The function detecting food fraud. Furthermore, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance for
of bees is not simply to “transport” there is a whole chapter devoted to detecting food fraud in numerous
nectar, but rather to transform nectar
into honey.
Prof. Enrique Bedascarrasbure is a
world expert on how authentic honey
can, must and should be produced in
tropical and semi-tropical regions.
Honey exporters in countries in those
regions have consistently affirmed
“we can produce authentic, mature
honey, but it takes longer and we can-
not meet the quantity and price de-
mands of the American market if we
employ those modes of production.”
This mode of production is not a mat-
ter of climate but is driven by the eco-
nomic interests of those engaged in
honey fraud in the food sphere.
Prof. Michael Roberts, a pre-emi-
nent legal authority on international
food fraud, including food fraud in
the honey industry, continues his im- Chart 4 Marche Asiatique (+ Ukraine)
February 2021 3
taries coalescing in a Great River for
Authenticity in Honey.
Imported Honey Prices, Quantities
and Markets
Argentina
Many contracts from 2020 that
were speculatively entered will have
difficulty being fulfilled because the
price from Argentine beekeepers
has increased about 40% from a year
ago, and as the demand for authentic
honey further increases, that increase
will steepen. Argentina shipped to
the world about 74,000 metric tons in
2020, one of the highest amounts dur-
ing the past decade. Given the fact that
the Canadian honey crop is essentially
sold out, the demand upon and the
prices of authentic Argentine honey
will continue the wave upward.
Brazil
Chart 5 U.S. Honey Imports from Different Origins In 2020 there appeared for the first
time the aberration that the significant
products is being released. The first rate mandate to create a new genera- price differential between conven-
podcast “Honey Fraud” features Prof. tion of consumers. At the same time, tional and organic honey collapsed.
Michael Roberts and myself. The sec- the awareness of the social responsi- This reflects the terrible state of the
ond in the series addresses the sci- bility of retailers and manufacturers market for honey.
ence of detecting adulteration and to combat food fraud and economi- Prices for organic honey began
the importance of food fraud law. The cally motivated adulteration has moving upward in the second half
third will present discussions of geo- grown. of 2020 and by October import prices
graphical and botanical origin in the The U.S. Congress has mandated were around $1.31/lb. As a leader in
wine industry, and the law in respect the procurement of NMR technology Brazil’s honey trade said about the
to the proper and accurate marketing for honey. As Kelvin Adee said in the price increases: First the prices were
of wines. Honey Producer Newsletter, “Test- too low to begin with. Then there was
Another factor is the emergence of ing of imported honey is a must. This a surge in buying from companies
consumer movements which include: needs to be done by Customs and afraid to run out of the product dur-
1) eco consumers, 2) sustainability Border Protection (CBP) as a regula- ing the pandemic. Problems with the
consumers, and 3) authenticity con- tory process. Ideally, 100% of the im- honey crop itself created further pres-
sumers. Multinational corporations ported honey would be tested.” It is sure on the prices during that period.
are aware they must respond to these anticipated that samples have already Prices in December were $1.64-1.82/
consumer interests, especially if they been drawn from shipments. lb. in Brazil.
are to successfully fulfill their corpo- All of these developments are tribu- Suppliers in Brazil and Argentina
have asked to renegotiate or cancel
some old contracts signed before the
pandemic. Brazil exported from Jan.
until Nov.: 71,000,000 lbs. to the U.S.
and 16,530,000 lbs. to the European
Union.
Canada
Canadian beekeepers are reporting
rising prices reaching USD$2.08/lb. in
December.
Interestingly, now that the market
is steeply rising, the manipulators are
offering prices above the market in an
effort to control the authentic honey
which is now in high demand but di-
minished supply. The masters of mar-
ket manipulation expect that prices
will continue to increase for authentic
honey. The reality of a Sea Change is
increasingly apparent throughout all
Chart 6 Unit Prices of Honey Imported by the US 2019-2020 levels of the market.
4 American Bee Journal
Dramatic events in the U.K., India golden syrup, invert sugar syrup, fect the international honey industry
and Canada relative to honey adul- rice syrup into India to submit remains to be seen. But already, prior
teration necessary documents with de- to the pandemic, Chinese interests
United Kingdom: Reports from the tails of the manufacturer with were acquiring honey companies in
U.K. regarding adulteration findings end use to whom the syrups will Europe, South America, North Amer-
in honey at major retail outlets spread be supplied. ica, Australia, and Asia. China’s appe-
in November, 2020. We excerpt from The same Chinese companies tite for strategic resources, including
the Sunday Mail: that advertise this fructose syrup agricultural resources, and its willing-
that can beat C3 and C4 tests also ness to print money and incur huge
U.K. Sunday Mail November export to India … national debt loads, have heightened
2020 Several countries export fruc- concern about China’s international
Tests conducted on own-brand tose syrup to India, but “China is economic activities.
honeys from Co-op, Tesco, Sains- driving the trend of fructose syrup While China lauds its commit-
bury’s and Asda suggest they quantity imported in India.” ment to battling climate change, it is
have been bulked out with A Chinese exporter told the the only major country in the world
cheap syrups made from rice investigator for Down to Earth: which in 2020 increased its emissions
and corn – without the retailers' “most of their clients mix 50-80 of CO2 heat trapping gases.
knowledge … per cent syrup in their honey.” In- All these macroeconomic, geopoliti-
Ten of the 13, including Asda vestigators found that “Samples cal and global climatic concerns man-
Set Pure Honey and Sainsbury’s with adulteration up to 50 per ifest the general principle that what
Clear Honey, tested positive for cent pass Indian tests.” happens in a given domain cannot be
the presence of enzymes indicat- fully understood without reference to
ing that they may be “adulterated Canada: The 2020 Canadian authen- what is happening in other domains
with inverted syrup” … ticity study indicated the presence of with which it inevitably interacts.
If the analysis, using a new adulteration even in a relatively so-
generation of "nuclear magnetic phisticated and high quality market. The toolbox and its proper use
resonance" tests, is proven, it This is the second report and it reflects The most advanced and compre-
would represent the U.K.’s big- a change attributable to strong efforts hensive tool, which also has the most
gest food fraud since the horse- by Canadian beekeepers and atten- wide global database, is NMR.
meat scandal in 2013. tion from the media to highlighting But there are also other methodolo-
and overcoming use of adulterated gies, including High Resolution Mass
India: We excerpt below from an honey. It is worthy to note that Can- Spectrometry (HRMS). Each of these
in-depth 40-page report by Sunrita ada imports very modest amounts of methods is powerful, if properly and
Narain, investigating honey adultera- honey from origins with a clear his- appropriately used.
tion in India. This report was pub- tory of adulteration. It must be noted that the Indian
lished in Down to Earth magazine in analysis for adulteration cited earlier
December 2020. Macro conditions was confined to extraneous sweeten-
The macro geopolitical context in- ers, including bioengineered sweeten-
After investigating the “golden cludes: 1) the COVID-19 pandemic ers. The testing methods used were
syrup” and fructose syrup use threatening human health, the econ- not applied to the analysis of resin
in bulk honey, the investigators omy, a hunger crisis, and long term technology nor the extraction of imma-
studied 13 Indian retail honey impacts on education and individual ture honey, both of which are known
brands. After analysis in In- psychology; 2) a climate crisis, with sources of adulteration in India.
dia, tests in Germany showed, expectations of more fires, droughts In Germany, where many of the
“Almost all samples failed on and floods; 3) a global debt crisis laboratories are found, the law for
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance which impacts the currencies of ma- certifiers is such that if and when
Spectroscopy (NMR) test. Labora- jor nations; and 4) unpredictable and adulterated and fraudulent products
tory said, ‘indicates adulteration/ rising freight rates. are certified as pure, it is inadequate
addition of sugar syrup.’ Of the 13 The impact of these events on to say that this company or that or-
brands only three brands passed. global agriculture becomes of increas- ganization instructed me to test for A
Of the 22 samples only five sam- ing concern. The agricultural sector and B when in fact the certifier had,
ples passed test. Rest were adul- can no longer ignore these events. or should have had, sufficient knowl-
terated.” … In his keynote address, Dr. Pettis re- edge to know that parameters C, D
On May 20, 2020, FSSAI [In- ported that “rising atmospheric CO2 and E must also be checked. Under
dian government food authority] is reducing by 30% the pollen concen- international laws regarding certifica-
issued an order on the import of tration of a floral pollen source essen- tion of authenticity, the certifier is re-
golden syrup, invert sugar syrup tial for North American bees.” sponsible to make sure all the relevant
and rice syrup. This order says As many countries have entered se- and appropriate parameters indicat-
that FSSAI has been informed vere recessions, debt and stagnation, ing modes of adulteration have been
that “sometimes these syrups are it is interesting to note that Chinese investigated.
used in the production of honey venture capitalists have become very We have seen attempts to use the
because it is cheaper in cost and aggressive throughout the world in wrong tool and also to use the right
due to similar properties and acquiring energy resources, high tech tool, but in an improper and limited
easy availability.” It directed companies, agricultural resources, manner. You can use a saw to hammer
that all importers/food business mines, etc. To what extent that eco- a nail; you can’t use a hammer to cut
operators, who are importing nomic acquisitiveness has or will af- and shape a piece of wood.
February 2021 5
The fundamental fact is that the Since food fraud in the honey Mr. Phipps is President and founder of CPNA
past decade has revealed multiple so- sphere represents the third largest International, Ltd. He is a former member of
the National Honey Board and Co-Chairman of
phisticated modes of adulteration of and most prevalent fraud in food, the Committee for the Promotion of Honey and
honey. The Apimondia document on new types of contracts are required. Health. He was a recipient of a National Sci-
food fraud, and other articles, bear Those contracts must include: 1) a ence Foundation Fellowship in the Philosophy
witness to adulteration by extrane- comprehensive traceability system of Theoretical Physics. He was an Organizer of
ous sweeteners, some of which have which includes modes of production, the 2020 Beethoven Festival by the CPI at the
been bioengineered, and the use of botanical sources, geographic re- magnificent Planting Fields Arboretum. In 2017
he was appointed Vice President of the Api-
resin technology to remove antibiotic gions, extraction procedures, climate mondia Scientific Commission on Beekeeping
residues, unpalatable flavors and to conditions, storage conditions; 2) the Economy. He has worked with FDA to develop
transform dark honey into extra light use of the appropriate test method- a research protocol for the global diversity of
amber and white honey. ologies to detect all relevant modes honey. e-mail: info@cpnaglobal.com
NMR has the potential, if fully and of adulteration.
appropriately used, to detect mul-
tiple modes. One of the most impor- Two sides of the coin
tant modes is to detect immature, The markets must integrate and
unripened honey. NMR can analyze harmonize the incentives to consume
36 chemical profiles and parameters and to produce honey. This “Year of
within the chemical profile of honey. the Bee” will be a year in which to re-
There are so many parameters because move beekeepers from the list of en-
mature, authentic honey has multiple dangered species. It is a time to show
constituents. As mentioned earlier, the integrity and respect for those who
function of bees is not simply to trans- produce botanical products and pro-
port honey from place to place, but tect nature.
rather to gather nectar and transform It is time to stand up and turn the
it to honey through the completed and coin on its other side, for the creative
complex interactions of botanical and marketing of honey depends upon the
zoological life. When NMR was first authenticity of honey.
introduced, Dr. Gudrun Beckh made Beekeepers, honest packers and
the point that the NMR profiles of im- honest exporters will inevitably in-
mature, unripened honey resembled creasingly take initiative in the cre-
the profiles of nectar. Which is to say, ative marketing of this beautiful
nectar is not honey. product of nature.
6 American Bee JournalYou can also read
