The honey standard has been a long six year process (article 2018) and commenced in relatively good times for the native bee community and industry though in the last couple of years we have seen less than ideal conditions for the bees and a decline in the industry. With that low point in the industry there has been very little focus or development around the honey sector.
Approval of the honey standard may encourage the industry to revisit old designs or develop new ones. We still have poor conditions for bees at the moment which makes any design testing difficult though we should atleast be planning ahead and be ready for the good conditions which hopefully aren’t too far away!
The market for stingless bee honey is relatively small which could be attributed to low availability, low public awareness of the product and high prices. The honey is quite difficult to harvest from hives which puts a lot of hive owners off the idea and high prices put off a lot of buyers.
Stingless bee honey has a fairly unique taste which is usually described as “citrus” or very sweet and sour and besides putting it on ice-cream people aren’t really sure what to do with it. It’s not something you put on toast. In order to develop new products that would be commonly used, the supply will have to increase and price reduce, or should it remain a sort after high priced product?
We can’t put the cart before the horse and promote the honey without being able to supply a consistent quality product. To meet the new honey standard the seller will need a food licence and use approved facilities for processing which can be expensive if you’re only selling a couple of litres per year so there may be co-ops, groups or businesses formed with this in mind.
The industry has a few tasks ahead, 1. further develop efficient honey supers, 2. harvesting solutions, 3. help develop processing and package solutions for small sellers, 4. develop new products using the honey, and 5. build public awareness of the product.
Plenty of development ahead!
Article photo: Stingless bee honey sold by Hive Haven
