I am writing to ask all Associations and their members to support our new honey petition, which calls on the Government to change the honey labelling rules so consumers can easily recognise all countries of origin of the honey contained in a jar sold here in the UK.  Sign the petition  here.

Following our members’ propositions and direction at the 2021 ADM, this is the second honey petition in our efforts to maintain pressure on the government to address this critical issue.  If you signed the first petition, please mark this one too.

The essential underlying issue here is ‘Funny’ Honey, i.e. honey that has not necessarily involved a honeybee collecting nectar, processing and storing it in the hive.  Supermarket own-label honey can be bought for as little as 69p a jar. Although supermarkets say every jar of honey is ‘100% pure’ and can be traced back to the beekeeper, there is no requirement to identify the countries of origin of honey blended from more than one country.  We want consumers to start looking at the labels when buying honey: does it clearly state the country of origin?  If it seems cheap compared to the other honey on the shelf, why?

We kindly ask all members to share the petition link with family and friends and on social media to help us reach our goal of 100,000 signatures, which means the Government must consider the issue for debate in Parliament.  The support of the general public and not just the beekeeping community is essential to achieve this result, so please share as widely as possible.   Associations and individuals that use Social Media can ‘share’ the BBKA social media pages below to create awareness and to share the link.

https://www.facebook.com/TheBritishBeekeepersAssociation/

https://twitter.com/britishbee/

https://www.instagram.com/britishbeekeepers/

Stephen Barnes,

Chair BBKA.