South Africans urged to join fight against ‘honey fraud’

All beekeeping associations, as well as the public, are encouraged to assist Impumelelo Agribusiness Solutions by reporting cases of ‘’fake honey” being offered for sale.

This was according to a statement by Impumelelo and the Western Cape Bee Industry Association (WCBA), which has been assigned by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development to set up quality standards for honey testing.

The statement said low-priced “fake honey” was being labelled as honey and illegally sold.

Malose Fache, business optimisation manager at Impumelelo, said the organisation was currently active in Gauteng, the Western Cape and

Mpumalanga, but was also conducting investigations throughout the country.

According to the statement, the WCBA had to date reported 14 incidents identified by its members, which had resulted in several successful raids and the confiscation of large amounts of “suspicious” honey products.

“Laboratory tests showed that some of the confiscated goods from supermarkets, butcheries and grocery stores raided, and from individuals acting as agents and selling these products, were non-honey products.”

Nick Hitge, a member of the WCBA’s executive committee, said the fake honey could, for example, be identified in the price difference, with a “choice grade 500g honey product” being sold for a retail price of R35, compared with R90 to R125 for a similar authentic product.

‘’[Sometimes it] happens that labels are simply changed when operators are found out, which makes it difficult to remove these products from the market.

“Labelling regulations need to [thus] be more stringent,” he said.

The estimated total production of honey in South Africa was about 2 000t/year, with a further 4 000t being imported from countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), as well as China and Argentina, said Hitge.