Blog: Bee Smart, Choose Local is this year’s message
Beekeepers across the UK are calling on consumers to discover the benefits of buying a jar of honey from their local producer, in the run-up to National Honey Day 2024 (October 21).
The British Beekeepers’ Association (BBKA) represents more than 30,000 members in England and Wales. It has launched a Bee Smart, Choose Local campaign. This celebrates the unique taste and regional variation of local honey, as well as the positive impact buying locally, can have on the environment, the regional economy and our general health and well-being.
According to the International Trade Centre, the UK imported about 50,917 tonnes of honey in 2023. Some of this will have been adulterated, with added sugars, an ultrafiltration process and even the removal of pollen from the final product. Jars and bottles of ‘honey’ cost as little as 69p, but often feature a blend of products from a number of different countries.
In contrast, the BBKA is arguing that local honey means real honey, made by bees collecting nectar from the surrounding environment, travelling straight from the comb to the jar. The final product is as close to nature as possible. Native plants vary between regions, meaning that locally produced honey will look and taste different wherever you go.
National Honey Day 2024 – Directly reinvested back into the community
As the product is extracted and sold within the community, the money spent will be directly reinvested back into the local economy too, helping to support beekeeping small businesses.
BBKA chair Diane Drinkwater said: “As a beekeeper, I know just how delicious the honey is from my own hive. I’m always keen to try other beekeeper’s honey as it does vary so much. There’s a huge range of local honey out there, why not try some from your nearest beekeeper?”
Lynne Ingram is BBKA honey ambassador and chair of the Honey Authenticity Network (HAN). She added: “National Honey Day is a brilliant opportunity to celebrate the variety of natural honeys produced in the UK. Real honey is a delight to eat. The flavours vary according to the flowers visited by the bees, rather than just being uniformly sweet. The colour can range from the palest yellow to almost brown. Celebrate British Honey this year by buying local and supporting British honey producers.”
Share any photos of you and your jar of local honey on social media and don’t forget to include the hashtags: #NationalHoneyDay, #LocalHoney, #Beekeeping. For more information, visit www.bbka.org.uk.