METCALFE — The price of honey is doubling at the
wholesale level, after chloramphenicol, a drug not allowed for food
production in Canada, was found in honey imported from China.
The drug can create a blood disorder called aplastic
anaemia.
The Chinese honey coming into Canada was sometimes sold
pure but more often was mixed with Canadian honey, said bee keeper Brent
Halsall.
He says a number of factors have combined to make 2002
a banner year for eastern producers. The ban on Chinese honey has combined
with an acute shortage in the three western provinces where production is
off by 75 per cent.
The eastern Ontario crop is one of the best in years,
Halsall said. But he has no illusions about Canadian bakers buying much
expensive honey. "They’ll find substitutes," he said.
But people who love honey will buy no matter what the
cost, he added.
A colony produces about 100 lbs. of honey in an average
year. The wholesale price this year is running between $190 and $225 per
hundred lbs.
Larger bee keepers have between 300 and 400 colonies, a
few as many as 3,000 colonies. Halsall is president of the Metcalfe
Farmers’ Market.
