Beekeepers take to the streets to protest against unfair competition from Chinese honey

In Rome, Piazza Santi Apostoli was filled with yellow overalls. It is Italian beekeepers who protest once morest climate change which threatens the health of bees, but also once morest unfair competition from non-EU honey, which is often adulterated or does not comply with the quality and food safety standards in force in Europe. The sit-in was promoted by the Miele in cooperative association: «We ask to initiate anti-dumping procedures in Europe once morest Chinese honey and raise consumer awareness towards an informed purchase of the product», explains Riccardo Babini, president of Miele in cooperative.

The yellow suits mainly put Chinese honey in the dock: added with sugar syrups and colorings, it is put on the market at just 1.70 euros per kilo. Too little to be a quality product, say the beekeepers, given that according to a Crea survey, it takes at least 4.1 euros to produce a kilo of honey in Italy. A dumping that is difficult to sustain for the 75 thousand national beekeepers, with 1.6 million hives already struggling with the increase in production costs, in a year made difficult by climate change. For the farmers who took to the streets, it is not only a question of unfair competition, but also a question of health and food safety: a recent investigation by the EU Commission had a portion of imported honey samples analyzed, finding that in 46% of cases does not comply with community rules due to the use of sugary syrups and the use of additives and colorings to falsify the botanical origin. The largest number in absolute value of suspicious consignments came from China (66 out of 89, equal to 74%), while the country with the highest percentage of suspicious honey samples was Turkey (14 out of 15, equal to 93%). . In the last two years, honey imports amounted to 26 million kilos, compared to national production of 22 million.

Added to the unfair competition is the drop in national production due to bad weather, the drought which penalized the blooms and the anomalous heat of this winter, with the bees deceived and forced to leave the hives without however finding the flowers. Beekeeping is also a sector that protects the environment and biodiversity: «Beekeepers – we read in a note from Miele in cooperative – play a fundamental role in protecting the environment, conserving biodiversity and supporting agriculture. Pollination by bees contributes to the reproduction of wild plants, trees and shrubs. This favors the diversity of plant species, keeping ecosystems balanced and promoting the conservation of native plants.”

The sit-in of the yellow suits received the solidarity of several politicians: «We have made a concrete commitment to intensify the promotion of Italian honey», said the national deputy secretary of Forza Italia, Deborah Bergamini, participating in the farmers’ demonstration. With her, the spokesperson of Fi and head of the Agriculture department, Raffaele Nevi: «I am committed – he declared – to creating a sub-department, within the Agriculture department, specifically dedicated to beekeeping, a structure which will have the task of directly addressing the issues that affect the category of beekeepers”.

Also in the square was Daniela Rondinelli, PD MEP and member of the Agriculture Commission of the EU Parliament, who worked on the revision of the so-called Breakfast Directive to improve the obligations relating to consumer information and the labeling of honey: «The import unfair and climate change is ruining Italian honey – he said – with national producers having to deal with arrivals of low quality foreign products at rock-bottom prices, while the production costs necessary to deal with bad weather and drought increase. Defending our beekeepers means starting anti-dumping procedures in Europe while at the same time raising consumer awareness towards an informed purchase of honey.” Rondinelli recalled that between 2021 and 2022, foreign imports of honey into Europe grew by 18 percent: «Since the EU cannot close itself off to third countries – he added – it is crucial to defend the quality of honey, supporting short supply chains, combating fraud and counterfeiting through widespread and adequate border controls, informing consumers in a transparent manner, but above all, signing advantageous commercial agreements for Made in Italy and the European market which provide for mutual respect for food safety standards and the environment”.