THE price of honey is set to increase in the UK because of a global shortage caused by bad weather, it emerged yesterday.
Argentina, the biggest exporter of honey to Britain, suffered a drought earlier in the year, which prevented the flowers necessary for bees to gather pollen from blooming.
The situation has been exacerbated by an unusually cold summer, according
to trade magazine The Grocer.
It says that bees would normally be gathering nectar throughout daylight hours at this time of year, which is summer in Argentina.
But low temperatures in Argentina's honey-producing regions mean bees are only working for three hours before returning to the hive.
The South American country has only managed to produce half the amount of honey it normally does in a year as a result.
Droughts in other areas including Eastern Europe and Australia have killed off plants in major honey-producing areas while northern Europe and America have had too much rain.
Scotland's heather-honey industry has also been hit by the weather problems this year.
Brian Pool, a commercial beekeeper of Penicuik-based Scottish Honey, said it was impossible for beekeepers in Scotland to meet the demands of supermarkets, making them more reliant on foreign honey.
Mr Pool said: "The reason for that is, in Scotland, we have such a short collection time for the honey.
"It's usually from May to September and unlike other farmers we are always totally dependent on the weather for our crop.
"Our climate here is too unpredictable. A beekeeper might have bees producing honey one year and not the following year because of conditions."
Honey is a seasonal product - in Scotland there are three "flows" in honey-making - spring, summer and autumn.
During the winter months, bees gather in clusters to keep warm and do not produce honey.
The Scottish yield was hit in part by heavy rains in June.
Mr Pool said: "In Scotland we really struggle weather-wise and there aren't that many commercial beekeepers in the country because it can be an expensive business.
"I just don't see Scotland being able to supply honey.
"We don't have the weather for it like other parts of the world that can have longer growing times.
"The majority of beekeepers are hobbyists. I know of some beekeepers who had a very poor crop this year because they were reliant on one flowering crop for their bees, whereas I could move my hives, so I managed to get something out of this year."
A professional beekeeper could have up to 100 beehives containing some 50,000 honeybees each.
A good year would give beekeepers a yield of 100lb of honey per hive, selling wholesale for £2.50 per lb and commercially for up to £4.50.
Honey Association chairman Thomas Heck warned shelf prices would have to rise.
He said: "We would expect to see a 25 per cent price rise in the raw-material price for honey compared with last year. These rises should hit manufacturers in spring next year."
• A HONEY bee makes some 154 trips for one teaspoonful of honey.
When it takes nectar from a flower, it stores it in a "honey sack".
When the sack is full, it returns to the hive, where it deposits the liquid nectar into the honeycomb, evaporating the water in the nectar by fanning its wings.
Once the honey has aged, wax is used to seal it into the comb, which keeps it clean.
To gather enough nectar for a pound of honey, a bee visits around 2 million flowers and flies a distance equal to more than three times around the world.
Only sterile female bees make honey. Male bees called drones do not work in the hive.
Their one and only task is to mate with the queen bee.
The full article contains 644 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
