'Honey' has to be honey. There are pages and pages about that in the EU-honey reglations.
In those is as well a list of countries authorised to import honey into the EU:
Argentina, Australia, Belize, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Israel, Jamaica, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Montenegro, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Paraguay, Pitcairn Islands, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, South Africa, Switzerland, Tanzania, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay, USA, Vietnam and Zambia.
So, Im not sure about the term "industrial honey" It is all bee barf.
Well, yes. But I strongly prefer the honey from bees I know personally :wink:
so..... the end story is honey exported from Australia to the EU has to be from a registered processoror/packager, not necessarily a registered apiary. Processors are the people that put the honey in jars. The intent of the regulations are to ensure clean and pure food product. I can understand that.
These rules apparently apply even if quantities are very small. It is the paperwork to comply with the regulations that holds the process up. The registered processors will not prepare the paperwork to legalise a small gift sized quantity so I think we'll just send 4 250 g packages sourced from quality apiaries and the EU can go f88k itself.
Whilst I'm at it, most of the Australian honey industry leading packagers can go f88k em selves as well for their point blank refusal to assist us.
I cant comment on the prices as my daughter only said it was expensive. It will cost $30.00 postage to send a kilogram (just over 2 pound). we get our honey (generally) free from my brothers hives so I really dont know how much it is here.
The cost is immaterial, what she's really after is pure Australian honey with the different flavors associated with different nectar sources.
Major Australian honey producers actually import honey from China and Argentina where prices are much much lower and blend it with Australian product, so we'll be avoiding the big packagers.
Dennis Gregory Overseas testing has found honey from Argentina was contaminated by nitrofurans - veterinary drugs used to inhibit bacterial growth - but the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) has not tested for nitrofurans in large quantities of honey being shipped here. Inquiries by The Sun-Herald revealed Food Standards Australia New Zealand, which is responsible for food safety and public risk, asked the quarantine service last Friday to begin random tests on imported honey shipments as soon as possible. There will be no tests on honey already on supermarket shelves, unless done by state governments. But the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council, which met last week, wants to test the shelf honey. Australian packers have been buying honey from Argentina and China because of a domestic shortage caused by the drought and bushfires. Nitrofurans are banned for use in food-producing animals in most countries - including Australia since 1992 - because of a possible risk of cancer in people who eat it over long periods. Six weeks ago, the Argentine Government found batches of contaminated honey and banned all exports until shipments were tested and permits issued to declare they were nitrofuran-free. Chinese honey was banned worldwide in August because of contamination by chloramphenicol, another antibiotic drug that can lead to a life-threatening anaemia.
Historically the honeybee never lived in China, instead it was the habitat of the more primitive mid-Indian bee. With the invention of modern beehive technology and mass production of cheap sugar, China became a huge producer of honey to the world market with prices normally less then a dollar per kilo.
This honey smashed the world by reducing prices of honey and sending native apiaries bankrupt. Nevertheless it turned out that the quality of that honey was so poor, that many countries experienced an increase in fair journalists reporting the truth to people, resulting in prohibition its import. Those countries included the USA and EUnion, but not Australia.
To our shame evidence exists that considerable amount of such honey was exported to US from Australia. For example, Australian Research Corporation in Agriculture and Development reported that in the 2001/02 financial year, 2228 tonnes of such Chinese honey were arriving to Australian ports and then bottled and sold to USA labeled as a "Made in Australia" product. Furthermore, 1447 tonnes of that honey arrived from Singapore where beekeeping does not exist. As witnessed by the American magazine Bee Culture, similar schemes of honey laundering were operating in the same period through India, Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia and other countries.
The facts of honey falsifications were found, but the main common factor in all that honey was that they all contained chloramphenicol - Danger ! Danger ! Danger ! and the irony of the story was that US authorities begun to distinguish Chinese honey from Argentinean Honey, as Argentina used another antibiotic.
The Cheap Honey has not disappeared at all, with those bastard "honey businessmen" continually trying to find a new ways of selling that honey to a public. Recently, China has found and delivered a new technology that filters antibiotics and other additives from honey to increase its quality to be accepted by Western level standards! That product, which has no distinct taste or smell, contains only 10% of moisture and other special qualities. As such, this product was nicknamed "a funny honey" in America. American beekeepers demanded for that product to be classified as a sweetener and not honey. They also demanded to prohibit the sale of such con in USA under the name of Honey!
My two cents: Australian honey is excellent and does have a unique taste. I abhor Chinese honey, tastes like high fructose corn syrup. American honey can range from excellent to corporate brands with little flavor. Bee problems are making it a very expensive product everywhere.
I think your daughter should throw a jar into her cosmetic bag when she comes home, customs will probably think it's some type of skin treatment and not ask too many questions. Honey has been used as a facial masque in the history of beauty, so it's not too far from the truth.
Chloramphenicol, geez louise, that can and does cause aplastic anemia...
(like you said).
The finest varietal honey Ive ever had was orange blossom honey from Imakolee Florida. Its only available locally in that form. It is blended with other forms, like Tupelo or clover , while ok, just doesnt have that orange blossom undertaste.
Ive never tried the Provence lavendar honey but I saw a program of CCD on NATURE this very evening and much of the research is focusing on a virus that seemes to have originated in Oz or China
I don'z like the Provence lavendar honey that much - the BlackForest fir tree honey is something for me.
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I still think, you can send as a private person anything (nearly) to any private person in the EU.
Well we all have our favorites mine is Yellow box honey.
sans antibiotics.
