Revision of the marketing standards – bittersweet feeling for EU beekeepers after Commission announcements

The European Commission presented today its proposals revising the marketing standards of, inter alia, fruit and vegetables, fruit juices and jams, honey, poultry, and eggs. For years, European honey producers have been looking forward to this publication that could save them from the catastrophic situation the sector has been experiencing for several years. The Commission has considered some of the sector’s demands, but there is a lack of ambition in protecting the sector from fraud.

Copa and Cogeca welcome the proposal for a revision of the Honey directive (Directive 2001/110/EC) introducing the obligation to indicate all individual countries of origin (both Member States and third countries) on the label in the case of blends or mixes. Mandatory origin labelling will increase the transparency for consumers.

Still, European beekeepers deeply regret that the European Commission lacked ambition and stopped before introducing a mandatory indication of percentage of each origin in honey blends. We find ourselves in a situation where the European Commission considers that this is technically difficult to do, whereas beekeepers, cooperatives and packagers working on the field know this is possible and necessary!

Faced with fraud and unfair competition from adulteration of imported honey products, Copa and Cogeca will continue its campaign #HoneYstLabellingNow requesting the implementation of three key measures to save the honey sector:

• Introductionof a mandatory country of origin labelling of honey blends with an indication of the respective percentage share of each honey origin displayed in descendent order.
• Enhancingthe traceability in the honey chain and laboratory testing of honey with the creation of a community reference centre for honey while updating the list of laboratory methods to detect fraud under the Directive 2011/110/EC.
• Systematic testing and traceability checks of honey imported into the EU in order to fight adulteration.

We look forward to the debate in the next meeting of the AGRIFISH council on 25 April and hope that the text will be significantly improved in this direction by the co-legislators.

Artigo publicado originalmente em Copa Cogeca.