In W36 in the honey landscape, in 2023, chestnut honey production in the Black Sea Region experienced a significant decline primarily due to the 'Welsh bee' pest, which arrived from the Mediterranean and damaged chestnut trees, along with heavy rainfall. In Turkey, the Welsh bee prevented 80% of flowers from blooming and had a detrimental effect on chestnut honey output, resulting in an unsuccessful honey harvest season. Normally, beekeepers from the Gümüşhane, Bayburt, Erzincan, Erzurum, and Ağrı regions produce between 1,800 metric tons (mt) and 2 thousand mt of honey, but in 2023, the yield is anticipated to be much lower, possibly not even reaching 1 thousand mt.
In Jul-23, China's bee product exports amounted to USD 24 million, a drop of 33.97% year-on-year (YoY), while the export volume was 11,300 mt, a drop of 31.32% YoY. Furthermore, in the first seven months of 2023, China's total bee product exports reached USD 197 million, a drop of 17.55% YoY, with an export volume of 93,300 mt, down 12.11% YoY. The top ten countries for bee product exports from China in this period included Japan, the United Kingdom (UK), Belgium, Poland, Spain, Australia, Portugal, the United States (US), Germany, and the Netherlands, accounting for 78.06% of the country's total export value. Japan was the leading market during this period, with exports amounting to USD 41 million despite a YoY decrease of 13.41%. However, in Jul-23, exports to Japan increased by 10.63%.
Lastly, Romanian beekeepers face challenges in selling honey profitably due to an influx of cheap imported honey from China and Ukraine, which often contains contaminated ingredients. Despite being the second-largest honey producer in the European Union (EU) after Spain, domestic beekeepers struggle to compete with the low prices of imported honey. Honey arriving at the port of Hamburg, Germany, is priced at just USD 1.07, equivalent to the cost of a kilogram (kg) of sugar. As a result, the Romanian Beekeepers' Association has called on Brussels to take action to support European honey producers. Since Romania's EU accession, the number of bee colonies has increased from 1 million to over 2.3 million, and honey production has risen from 16 thousand mt in 2007 to nearly 30 thousand mt in 2022. Moreover, a recent European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) study found that up to half of the honey imported into the European Union is counterfeit.