There are two factors why I know a lot more about bees and honey than most persons. First, the Economic Advisory Council to PM set up a Beekeeping Development Committee below my chairmanship. (The June 2019 report is in the public domain). Second, we have bees at residence and honey we consume comes from these bees. Bees generate other merchandise too—royal jelly, pollen, beeswax, bee venom and propolis. (A new queen bee also fetches a fair quantity of cash). However, in common perception, bees are commonly identified with honey. Contrary to the basic impression, there are unique varieties of bees. Some are even solitary. The beehives 1 sees hanging right here and there on trees or ones discovered in mountains and forests are from the rock bee, Apis dorsata. Most beekeepers will have Apis mellifera, with Apis cerana in southern components. Apis mellifera is a lot more productive and reasonably docile. However, Apis dorsata is wild. When it stings, it stings really hard, and it hurts. In comparison, Apis mellifera does not sting unless provoked and when it does sting, the sting is mild. Our bees are mellifera. Honey can be multi-flora, exactly where bees gather honey from numerous varieties of flowers. Honey can also be uni-flora, exactly where honey is particularly from 1 variety of flower. In the latter case, higher handle has to be exercised by a beekeeper, and as a result, logically, uni-flora honey will be a lot more high priced than multi-flora. Everyone ought to attempt out mustard or saffron (kesar) honey to savour the distinction.
We are not skilled beekeepers. Therefore, our homegrown honey is multi-flora. But since of the trees about, it is generally primarily based on neem or eucalyptus (based on the season), with that really distinctive fragrance and flavour. Because of the perception that honey is superior for well being, lots of good friends/acquaintances on a regular basis have honey, purchased from the industry. When they taste our honey, they remark on how unique it is. Our honey is pure and unadulterated. When honey is purchased from the industry, you never ever know. Natural and pure honey will crystallise, but most shoppers do not like that. To cater to customer tastes, some mixing with sugar syrup is inevitable. Natural and pure honey will be mixed with some pollen, but most shoppers do not like that smell. There is raw honey, and there is processed honey. What type of value guarantees the viability of apiculture? That is not straightforward to answer, given that the answer depends on the scale of operation, variety of bee and on regardless of whether the beekeeper also sells non-honey merchandise. As a rough indication, Rs 110 per kg for raw honey ought to suffice. Viability of apiculture is also important for cross-pollination carried out by bees, a reality we have a tendency to overlook. But this is raw honey. The beekeeper will do processing, and there will be some wastage. Therefore, a thing like Rs 180 per kg for processed honey. That is not the finish of the chain. Like the farm to fork story, there are margins in the chain for wholesalers, stockists, retailers. From Rs 180 per kg, the hive to higher table honey value becomes about Rs 360 per kg.
As a customer, when you acquire multi-flora honey, you in all probability spend Rs 400 per kg or a lot more. But the beekeeper’s value has crashed to Rs 75 per kg, creating apiculture unviable. What’s incorrect? It is not as if we import significant volumes of honey from elsewhere. Consumers are getting a lot more honey. But beekeepers are promoting much less raw and semi-processed honey and acquiring a decrease value. This leads to only 1 probable conclusion what a customer buys as honey is not organic honey. It takes place to be adulterated. Down to Earth (Centre for Science and Environment) has just released a report (“It’s not honey”) that documents adulteration of honey, a phenomenon we also encountered when we did our report. Food and Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has questioned the validity of CSE’s tests. Leaving that aside, think about the following.
Some mixing of sugar syrup is understandable and permissible. Above that threshold, it constitutes adulteration. Some queries: (a) When we export honey, strict requirements are applied shouldn’t domestic requirements be the exact same, or do we accept decrease requirements for domestic shoppers? (b) Do FSSAI’s present requirements for honey capture each probable kind of adulteration via sugar syrup? Sugar utilized for dilution and adulteration can be from numerous sources, corn, sugarcane, rice, beetroot. Do present tests cover all these, and is there a fructose syrup that can cheat tests? (CSE suggests we initially imported fructose syrup from China, but that Chinese technologies has now been implanted in some Indian states). (c) Is enforcement (a state government function) sufficient, or are we ready to tolerate adulteration, a reality of life for other things also? (d) How hard are our marketing and customer protection norms? Are we content that unnatural honey ought to be labelled as organic honey? In our report, we had mentioned, “Honey (and bee products) sold in India or exported shall be traceable to a registered beekeeper or a registered collector (in case of rock bee honey). Honey without a known source shall not be treated as honey”. The only way we will make certain the honey is genuine is via traceability, and technologies and digitisation tends to make this process less difficult. This suggests we have to have to know the honey provide chain and formalise apiculture, a view also endorsed by CSE. FSSAI is only a regulator. That terminal objective demands substantially a lot more than FSSAI action. Till then, the land is 1 of syrup and honey.
The author is Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the PM Views are private