Why Local Jjars Cost €10 and Chinese Imports Sell for €1.39
- Cypriot honey sells around €10 per kilogram, while imported honey entering the EU can cost as little as €1.39/kg.
- Cypriot beekeepers say climate pressure can slash production by at least 30% under challenging years.
- The EU’s coordinated testing found that 46% of honey imports were suspected of adulteration.
- EU/OLAF documentation shows the highest absolute number of suspicious consignments originated from China (74%)
- From 2026, EU labels must list the countries of origin in honey blends with percentages, making “mystery honey” harder to hide.
- Buying local honey is not romantic nationalism — it is quality control, biodiversity support, and food honesty.
Cyprus does not have a honey problem. It has a math problem.
Local honey sells around €10 per kilogram — and even that price barely covers the cost of keeping bees alive in a climate that is getting hotter, harsher, and less forgiving every year. Meanwhile, Chinese imported honey can enter the European market priced as low as €1.39/kg.
At that point, the question is not whether Cypriot honey is expensive.
The question is: what exactly is being sold as honey at €1.39/kg?
Because honey is not a factory product, it is not cornflakes. It is made by living colonies that must forage, survive, defend themselves, and navigate a landscape that has been shrinking and burning year after year.
The Cypriot beekeepers featured in the local report are not just fighting cheap competition. They are fighting an imported product category that many experts say is, too often, not what it claims to be.
Cypriot Beekeepers Are Not Overreacting
Climate conditions in Cyprus are not “bad for honey.” They are becoming an existential pressure.
According to Cypriot reports, honey production can drop by at least 30% under challenging years due to drought, extreme heat, fires, reduced vegetation, and reduced forage for bees. That is not inefficiency — that is ecology collapsing in slow motion.
And Cyprus does not get the luxury of being vague about it: when nectar dries up, the colony weakens; when the colony weakens, disease and predators bite harder; when colonies suffer losses, beekeepers replace them at a cost that no imported pricing war will ever acknowledge.
So yes: Cyprus honey is more expensive.
It is also real, traceable, and linked to living landscapes — not global commodity pipelines.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Ultra-cheap Imported Honey
Not all Chinese honey is fake. China has real beekeepers and real honey.
But the export stream that ends up in EU supermarkets at laughably low prices is where the problem lies. That pipeline has long been linked to adulteration — honey diluted with syrups made from rice, sugar beet, wheat, or other sugar sources designed to mimic honey.
And now, it is not only beekeepers saying this.
It is the European Commission itself.
In an EU-wide coordinated action (sampling honey at EU borders and testing it with the Joint Research Centre), 46% of the imported honey samples were suspected of being non-compliant with the Honey Directive.
| How to Spot Suspicious Honey |
| 1) Read labels like a prosecutor Avoid “Blend of EU & non-EU honeys” and vague “Packed in EU” jars. |
| 2) Price is the first red flag Honey priced like soda is often blended/processed / suspicious. EU testing found 46% of imports suspicious. |
| 3) Crystallisation proves nothing Some real honeys crystallise fast. Some stay liquid longer. |
| 4) Too clear = too filtered Ultra-clear honey may have had its pollen removed, making its origin harder to verify. |
| 5) Buy honey like olive oil Look for region, producer, and clear origin. |
| 6) 2026 will help From 2026, EU blends must list the origin countries and their percentages. |
The EU Science Hub explains that more sophisticated detection methods show how syrup extensions have evolved — moving away from older corn syrups toward rice/wheat/beet syrups that are harder to detect.
EU Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) reporting and Commission Q&As show the highest absolute number of suspicious consignments originating from China — 74% (66 out of 89) in that dataset.
So if you are a consumer standing in front of a €1.39 honey option, you are not being elitist for doubting it. You are being statistically sane.
If It Is Real Honey, Why Is It so Cheap?
The EU Science Hub notes that sugar syrups are available at around €0.40–0.60/kg. In comparison, the EU average unit value for imported honey was around €2.32/kg in 2021. That price gap makes honey fraud extremely lucrative. So when you see honey sold at prices that even honest honey cannot realistically match, the suspicion is economic logic.
Why You Should Buy Cypriot Honey
This is not a sentimental “support local” lecture. This is what buying Cypriot honey actually does:
- You get terroir, not generic sweetness: Cyprus honey reflects local flora, season, and landscape — not global blending tanks.
- You reward transparency: With local honey, you can trace where it came from. Often, you can even trace the beekeeper.
- You protect pollination and agriculture: Bees are not only honey makers; they are the pollination infrastructure.
- You vote against fraud: Every purchase signals what the market will tolerate.
And the cruel irony is that honey fraud not only hurts beekeepers. It also harms consumers — because it normalizes counterfeit food culture: “cheap is fine,” “labels are decoration,” “who cares what it really is.”
Cyprus should care. Greece should care. Europe should care.
Because once honey becomes just another fake import commodity, the beekeepers disappear. And the bees — the real ones — become just a pretty symbol on packaging.
Coming in 2026: The EU Label Rule That Changes the Game
Some good news: more transparency is on the way.
The European Commission notes that from 2026, honey blends must list:
- the countries of origin
- in descending order
- with the percentage share of each origin
This matters because one of the classic tricks of global honey blending has been hiding behind vague labels. Cyprus honey does not need hiding.
It survives in daylight.
Consumers also deserve honesty: ultra-cheap imported honey is not merely cheaper honey. It is a product category with a documented fraud problem.
If you want honey that tastes like somewhere — honey that behaves like honey — honey that does not require advanced lab testing to defend its identity — buy Cypriot.
