Honey Laundering, the new international scandal.

The honey business is plagued with international intrigue, where foreign hucksters and shady importers sometimes rip off conscientious packers with Chinese honey diluted with cheap sugar syrup or tainted with illegal antibiotics.

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Honey Laundering reported from China through Australia into the U.S.

by Alan Harman

China Death threats and a mystery car brake failure followed after a senior figure in the Australian honey industry attempted to expose a racket involving Chinese honey being relabeled and shipped to the United States. "My wife and chldren were in the car when the brakes mysteriously failed within days of the death threats," the man said. The threats came after he warned that the relabeling "had the potential to destroy our industry, not just give it a dent." The man now is so concerned he refused to allow his name to be published. "My wife is terrified," he said. Told of the threats, another big player said he was not surprised. "There's a lot of dollars inviolved in this."

The drama came to light during a Bee Culture investigation into the scale of the Australian honey relabeling operations. This found that up to 2,228 tonnes (nearly 4.5 million pounds) of Chinese honey was shipped to Australia and then re-exported to the United States in the 2001-02 financial year at a time when the U.S. had banned Chinese honey. The figures were published in a survey of the Australian honeybee industry released by the Australian Rural research and Development Corp. The report said: "Australia normally imports a relatively small quantity of honey. However, in 2001-02 Australian honey production dropped markedly due to widespread drought, particularly in the eastern states. Australian honey imports increased with most of these imports subsequently being re-exported by processors to fill export contracts. "Honey imported from Singapore in 2001-02, was most likely sourced from China and, along with other direct imports from China, was mostly re-exported to the United States." This was at a time when the U.S. - along with Canada and the European Union - had banned Chinese honey because of health safety concerns over the levels of the antibiotic chloramphenicol which has been linked to aplastic anaemia, a serious disease with symptoms similar to some cancers....(more at the above link)

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mklawz said:

good timing on that post. I know some local bee keepers who, just this morning at the gym were telling me about this Chinese honey racket.

When it comes to honey, buy local, not that cheap blended stuff.

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jezter6 said:

Interestingly enough, this ended up on the DHS (Dept Homeland Security) website where my dad found it and emailed it to me a week or two ago..

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