Eurostat: Bulgaria has exported around 10 000 tonnes of honey in the EU

According to Eurostat data on exports and imports of natural bee honey from the 28 EU member states for the last year, Bulgaria has exported approximately 10,000 tonnes of honey to EU countries, and about 4 tonnes of honey to non-EU countries.

At the same time, Bulgaria has imported about 12 tonnes of honey from non-EU countries and 3.5 tonnes of honey from EU countries, European statistics shows.

According to the data of the President of the United Bulgarian Apiculture Union Eng. Mihail Mihaylov, specially for BTA, Bulgaria is an important exporter of high quality honey for Germany, Austria, Italy, France, the United States, Norway and others, and we have been exporting honey to countries from the Middle East /without Turkey/. The market share of our exports to the EU is about 1%, but on the other hand, we compensate with the quality production, emphasized Eng. Mihaylov.

The problem with the industry is the lack of a Bulgarian bee honey trademark, which will be used by the beekeepers in the European markets, said Mihaylov.

China emerges as the largest importer of honey in the EU for the last year with nearly 80,000 tonnes, or about 40% of the total honey imports into the EU, according to Eurostat data. Another major external importer of honey in the EU is Ukraine - nearly 40,000 tonnes or 20% of the imports, as well as Argentina - 25,000 tonnes, Mexico - 21,000 tonnes and Chile - 8,000 tonnes.