46% of Imported Honey Samples Failed EU Suspicion Test

Nearly half — 46 per cent — of imported honey samples examined in a coordinated European Commission investigation were flagged as suspicious of failing EU rules. That single statistic is the backdrop to a warning from Spain's beekeepers: cheap, adulterated honey is crowding out the real thing on supermarket shelves, and shoppers are largely none the wiser.

The EU investigators found cheaper syrups — rice, maize and other sugar-based alternatives — being used to bulk up honey volumes and disguise its true composition. It's fraud with a pleasant golden color.

Who is raising the alarm?

Ángel García Blanco, president of agricultural organisation ASAJA Extremadura, describes the situation as a major fraud involving imported honey and cheaper sugar syrups. He claims honey originating in China is being channelled through Portugal before reaching the Spanish market, with its original country of origin obscured along the way.

The practice is known as 'triangulation'. Cheaper imports compete head-on with Spanish honey while giving consumers a misleading impression of where the jar actually came from. García Blanco's advice to shoppers is direct: check labels carefully and buy honey whose declared country of origin is exclusively Spain.

Why does Portugal matter?

The trade figures explain the suspicion. According to García Blanco, Spain imported 8,067 tonnes of honey from Portugal in the first six months of 2026, at an average price of €1.55 per kilo. Over the same period, China exported 5,648 tonnes of honey to Portugal at just €1.08 per kilo.

Spanish producers, meanwhile, operate at production costs of around €5 per kilo — roughly three times what importers pay for the Portuguese product and nearly five times the Chinese price. Nobody stays in business long on that arithmetic.

To be clear, the trade figures alone don't establish that individual consignments have been fraudulently relabelled. But they explain why agricultural representatives see a routing pattern worth investigating.

What do the new labelling rules change?

New European labelling requirements came into force in June 2026. Honey blends must now identify their countries of origin in descending order, alongside the respective percentages of each, subject to specific provisions for smaller shares. Previously, labels could simply say 'blend of EU and non-EU honey' — wording that told shoppers almost nothing.

The changes are meant to give consumers transparency. The industry's view: not enough. It says more effective testing and enforcement are needed to tackle adulteration.

One nuance matters here. Blending honey from different countries is not illegal in itself. The problem arises when cheaper syrups are added, or when the product's true composition or origin is misrepresented.

How bad is the crisis for Spanish beekeepers?

The honey controversy sits inside a much larger collapse. Farm groups COAG and UPA estimate Spain's honey harvest suffered losses of between 50 and 80 per cent in the latest campaign.

The structural numbers are just as stark:

• Spain has around 2.74 million beehives — approximately 360,000 fewer than five years ago, a decline of roughly 12 per cent.
• National production fell from 36,390 tonnes in 2018 to 29,350 tonnes in 2025, a drop of about 19 per cent in seven years.

Beekeepers are fighting on multiple fronts: the varroa mite, which weakens and kills bee colonies; Asian hornets; drought; and the European bee-eater, a protected bird that feeds on bees. Rising diesel prices add further pressure, particularly for beekeepers who transport hives between regions in search of flowering crops.

Add cut-price imports to that list, and Spanish producers fear an industry already struggling to survive could face further losses.

What should shoppers do?

The sector's message is simple: check the small print, look closely at the country of origin, and consider buying directly from a local Spanish beekeeper. It's the one enforcement mechanism every consumer controls personally.

The labelling rules and the Commission's testing crackdown suggest regulators are catching up. Whether enforcement arrives fast enough to matter for a sector that has lost a fifth of its production since 2018 is the question Spain's beekeepers are now waiting to have answered.