Chc april 14 letter to ministers

Canadian Honey Council♦Conseil Canadien du Miel 218, 51519 R.R. 220 Sherwood Park, Alberta T8E 1H1

April 14, 2016

Hon. Lawrence MacAulay Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Hon. Jane Philpott Minister of Health Honourable Ministers: A recent on-line petition supporting Canadian beekeepers and Canadian honey has garnered a great deal of attention, in fact, nearly 80,000 Canadians have signed on in support. The petition raises some important areas where governments have been very slow to address. The petition itself is directed towards one particular company but the issues raised are much broader. One excerpt from the text reads: “Right now, there are beekeepers in Canada who are unable to sell their crops, or must do so below cost and are quickly becoming bankrupted. Some will be unable to provide sufficient spring feed for be forced to close their doors and move off the farm. But not for lack of trying, it is estimated that there may be nearly half of last year’s honey crop still sitting unsold in storage across the country, all the while cheap imported honey is being put on your grocery shelves first or blended to stretch out supply and cheapen the ingredients. Hard working beekeepers deserve to have their honey bottled and available for Canadian consumers before any other honey is imported and sold inside of our own country.”

Many issues come to mind when examining the above statement. First and foremost is the labelling of Canadian honey. Canadian consumers are being purposely mislead by current labelling requirements whereby the grade of the product is highlighted (i.e. Canada #1 white) insinuating that it is a Canadian product. It is only upon further inspection that consumers can distinguish that the content of the product may be made of Canadian and other imports. We need clear concise labelling on content, where labelling something Canadian means it is Canadian, not a blended product.

The Canadian Honey Council has, and will continue to, strongly support the sale and use of Canadian honey. With this in mind, we find it extremely disconcerting that imports from countries such as Spain, Thailand, Myanmar, Greece, Vietnam and China, who have international reputations for transshipped product, continue to be recipients of large exports to Canada.

Recently, the Canadian Honey Council brought the attention of Spanish honey imports to CFIA which resulted in a single product being taken off store shelves, but more needs to be done.

While current consultations in this regards are taking place, increased inspections need to be increased immediately.

Earlier this year we asked Minister MacAuley to look at the possibility of increasing limits for spring advances as carry over stock was an issue in calculations. This problem has only been exasperated by the continued lack of sales both domestically and internationally. Unfortunately, the cost of production has not decreased in relationship to honey prices. In fact, we are observing

Promoting co-operation between beekeepers, industry and government Tel 1-877-356-8935 .

E-mail: chc-ccm@honeycouncil.ca website: www.honeycouncil.ca encourageant la coopération entre les apiculteurs, l’industrie et le gouvernement

Canadian Honey Council♌Conseil Canadien du Miel 218, 51519 R.R. 220 Sherwood Park, Alberta T8E 1H1

the opposite, prices are decreasing and expenses are increasing. Current programs do not address the unique situation the beekeepers are finding themselves in and immediate program alterations need to take place in order to ensure honeybees and honey production remain a viable business.

The CHC also requests the need to continue import statistic reports in as much detail as possible in order for the industry and government to recognize potential threats/risks to our domestic market, such as transhipping, adulteration or dumping. Over the past 10 years, the U.S. has imposed anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese honey as high as 223% which slowed down the level of imports, but also resulted in transhipment and circumvention by declaring honey as a different type of sweetener. We do not want to see Canada being used as an alternate point of entry and with the effort being taken in harmonizing Canadian and U.S. food regulations, we need to support one another on this effort as well.

We would also like to discuss with you if there are ways government can support our Canadian beekeepers by recognizing the level of standards in which we carry out to produce a safe and healthy food product and if we can hold the supply countries of Canadian imports to those same standards. We currently have voluntary CFIA registration, honey regulations, as wells as biosecurity and on farm food safety programs. By and large, most commercial honey producers do follow these principles and there is much doubt these supply countries have these type of practices in place.

The Canadian honey industry has a great reputation with a world class product. We do not want to see that reputation damaged. Rest assured we will continue to work with members of our value chain to promote Canadian product sales, to continue to purchase safe quality honey from progressive beekeepers, but your assistance is required immediately to ensure economic viability.

We respectfully request to meet with you to discuss these issues as soon as possible.

Respectfully,

Kevin Nixon Chair Canadian Honey Council

Promoting co-operation between beekeepers, industry and government Tel 1-877-356-8935 .

E-mail: chc-ccm@honeycouncil.ca website: www.honeycouncil.ca encourageant la coopÊration entre les apiculteurs, l’industrie et le gouvernement