ESPACIO APICOLA - CORDOBA - ARGENTINA

Argentine Beekeepers' Magazine

Version en Castellano

DUMPING NEWS
At November 29th, 2024

ARGENTINE HONEY: CONSISTENT AND HOPEFUL ARGUMENTS

(Espacio Apícola, November 29, 2024) The Argentine Government appeared before the Department of Commerce, highlighting first of all the collaboration that both Argentine companies, ACA and NEXCO, have had to fully respond to the requirements of the honey dumping investigation, demonstrating their commitment to operate correctly in the US market. It then points out that the DOC's calculation methodology, in this First Review of the sanctions applied, inappropriately values the inflation suffered in Argentina and the devaluation of the Argentine Peso. In that order, the Argentine Government affirms that the DOC should correct this methodology by converting dollars and euros to Argentine Pesos according to the Sale dates (ACCESS doc. 4669210-01).

For their part, ten Argentine companies and a couple of importers filed a brief pointing out the legitimacy of ACA's claim in light of what they consider to be an error in the calculation by the DOC, but they also allege that it is illegal to extend that extreme rate of 58.34% to all other companies, saying: "These entities, collectively referred to herein as the "non-selected companies" contest the rate determined by Commerce for non-selected companies, namely, the 58.34% rate determined for Asociación De Cooperativas Argentinas Cooperative Limitada (ACA). ACA has provided argument how Commerce incorrectly calculated its rate, and the non-selected companies support those arguments. To the extent Commerce does not accept those arguments and intends to continue to apply the 58.34% rate (or a similarly extreme rate) to the non-selected companies in the Final Results, the non-selected companies argue that the 58.34% rate is unlawfully applied because it fails to reasonably reflect potential dumping margins for non-investigated companies (ACCESS doc. 4669864-01).
The presentation made by Davis & Leiman P.C., dated November 25, 2024, then continues to develop the argument that expressly refutes the legality of imposing the same tariff on all other companies not investigated. The document is preceded by a list of Authorities and represents the interests of the following companies: Argentik LLC (importer), Azul Agronegocios S.A., Compania Apícola Argentina S.A., D'Ambros María de Los Angeles and D'Ambros María Daniela SRL, Gasrroni S.R.L., Naiman S.A., Newsan S.A., Patagonik Food S.A., Prairie Imports LLC (importer), Promiel S.R.L. and Villamora S.A.

As we have noted since early July, when the Preliminary Result of this First Review was published, ACA raised a change in the analysis methodology by the DOC that altered the interpretation of the documentation submitted by ACA. This was raised by ACA in an extensive analysis and anticipated what it is requesting today: "ACA respectfully requests that the Department revise its methodology for the purposes of calculating the final results of this administrative review by: 1) converting foreign currency revenues into ARS at the time of sale, 2) inflating ARS-denominated values to the end of the period, and 3) calculating ACA's inflation-adjusted profit by calculating the difference between ACA's aggregate end-of-period sales revenue and cost (ACCESS doc. 4670917-01). This would be the central claim based on what ACA explains was an error in the programming language used by the DOC to determine the Preliminary Result of this First Administrative Review.

For its part, NEXCO S.A., which was initially determined by the DOC to have a tariff below the threshold and therefore equivalent to "zero," and anticipating them self that the systemic fail that harmed ACA could be used by the Petitioners to request the imposition of a higher tariff, asks the DOC to do the same thing that ACA is requesting, namely: The Department must correct its preliminary determination calculations by eliminating the indexing of third country sales revenues in U.S. dollars when calculating CV profit. Only the costs which are in ARS should be indexed to the end of the period. Otherwise, the CV profit rate does not reflect the proper treatment of dollar denominated prices and third market revenue based the date of the sale.

As expected, the petitioners are clinging to the interpretation made by the DOC to sanction ACA with the 58.34% tariff and reject ACA's claim because they consider that the indexaction at the end of the period, explained by the inflationary process, is a price and billing adjustment that cannot be accepted. And with respect to NEXCO, which would have reported an analysis of inventory costs in dollars, they maintain that these should be calculated in Argentine pesos with the interest rates of Argentina. They also demand a production cost report that reflects the differences in the characteristics of the honeys sold when, we understand, for NEXCO the DOC had already recognized the purchase prices as costs (ACCESS doc. 4671208-01).

Next Wednesday, December 4 is the deadline for the interested parties to refute the allegations presented this week.

BRAZILIAN HONEY: SECOND REVIEW IS IN PROGRESS


INDIAN HONEY: PETITIONERS CHARGE!

(Espacio Apícola, November 29th, 2024) The Petitioners presented documentation requesting and supporting the petition to consider Particular Market Situations in the primary production of honey in India. One of the issues raised, but not the only one, is to claim that the Indian government failed to defend workers in the primary sector where 90% of the workforce (they say) would be informal workers. A second argument focuses on the fact that another Particular Market Situation would have been caused by the fall in the price of honey in India due to adulteration with sugar syrups from China. They contrasted this issue with the alleged production costs published in the Indian press and by the government. If there were no massive fraud, honey prices would be different, the petitioners claim, "the Department should increase respondents' reported material costs by [ ] percent to remedy the distortion in Indian honey prices caused by widespread honey adulteration with sugar syrups (ACCESS doc. 4670670-01)."

VIETNAMESE HONEY: NEW DEADLINES AFTER THE PUBLICATION OF THE VERIFICATIONS

(Espacio Apícola, November 29th, 2024) Finally, the DOC published, on November 27th, the reports of the verifications carried out in the offices of the two companies investigated in Vietnam and extended until next Thursday, December 5th, the deadline for the allegations and December 12th for the rebuttals (ACCESS doc. 4671673-01).

Previous report HERE

DUMPING NEWS
At November 16th, 2024

ARGENTINE HONEY: THE FINAL BATTLE

(Espacio Apícola, November 16th, 2024) On November 5th, Thomas Martin uploaded the report about the "Verification of Sales and Costs" carried out by him and his partner at the offices of the Association of Argentine Cooperatives (ACA) last September to the Department of Commerce (DOC) website (ACCESS doc 4659051-01); three days later, Zachary Saykin did the same with the report about the verification carried out at NEXCO S.A. (ACCESS doc 4662563-01). These reports, 28 and 32 pages long respectively, did not make or suggest any changes to the preliminary resolution, they only intervened to verify the information previously presented by each company. After that each company presented documents with "minimal corrections".
All the basic documentation was then consolidated for the analysis and Final Determination of the first review carried out by the DOC after the initial investigation and open to the defendants' arguments and possible refutations from the Petitioners, before the DOC confirms or modifies the Preliminary Determination published on June 28th, five months ago! which is an eternity for the beekeeping market in Argentina.
NEXCO S.A., whose honeys were excluded from all tariffs in a preliminary manner, now has the opportunity to strengthen its defense until November 22nd and the Petitioners to request a higher tariff.
For its side, ACA, whose honeys were preliminarily sanctioned with a dutty of 58.34% for the period of the first review and which in August had argued a methodological change by the DOC that would harmed it, they presented on yesterday the same information opportunely presented and verified by DOC officials with the corrections made, in two calculation versions (ACCESS 4665359-01). The first according to the weighted average standard of annualized costs used by the DOC (which would have been the analysis method used in the review by the DOC and questioned by ACA). And the second version uses the quarterly cost methodology also used by the DOC and which is the method used by the DOC for the calculation in the initial investigation. ACA had pointed out this change of method between the initial investigation and the investigation of the review period as the cause of what they consider an error in the dutty calculation by the DOC, as we said in this column on August 30th. The ACA proposal is for the DOC to review the correct calculation method to apply based on the Argentine inflationary process that prevailed during the Review Period (a quarterly or annualized analysis) and, based on this, confirm or modify the tariff determined in a preliminary manner.
Next Friday, November 22nd, is the deadline for ACA, NEXCO and the Petitioners to appeal on the preliminary results published in June and on November 29th for the respective refutations (ACCESS doc 4665558-01).
Beyond the modification or not of the tariff exemption for NEXCO honey, the ACA battle will define the definitive tariff for honey from all other Argentine exporting companies and for which all beekeeping activity in Argentina is hopeful and pending in the middle of the productive season in the southern country.

BRAZILIAN HONEY: NO CHANGES IN THE FIRST REVIEW

(Espacio Apícola, November 16th, 2024) No documents have been submitted regarding the First Review and the Second Review is moving forward in its usual channels.
Apparently the tariffs determined in a preliminary manner would be confirmed in January.

INDIAN HONEY: NO CHANGES IN THE FIRST REVIEW

(Espacio Apícola, November 16th, 2024) The progress of the Second Review continues with questions from the Petitioners regarding the documentation presented by the companies, without further developments.
Apparently the tariffs determined in a preliminary manner would be confirmed in January.

VIETNAMESE HONEY: NO NEWS ON THE VERIFICATIONS

(Espacio Apícola, November 16th, 2024) The companies whose documentation would have been verified by the DOC in the visits made last month presented their respective corrections and comments. The DOC is expected to submit reports on these verifications as well as a schedule of final appeals and rebuttals prior to the final determination to be published on January 8th.
The Second Review is also underway.

Previous report HERE

FAKE HONEY

FRAUDULENT PRODUCTS AT SIAL FAIR IN PARIS 2024

(Espacio Apícola, November 7th, 2024) Several samples of Chinese products, offered as Chinese honey or Vietnamese honey, were taken at the recent SIAL Paris fair by Estonian beekeepers and analysed by Metagenomics DNA Analisis where they proved to be absolutely fake.

Peeter Matson, Sander Sulane and Taavi Tull, professional beekeepers from Estonia recorded an investigation they carried out at the recent SIAL Paris fair, entitled "The truth behind honey in the global market". They travelled to Paris, visited the stands of Chinese companies offering "honey" and on their return took the product samples to the CELVIA laboratory in Estonia, where they were subjected to the most innovative analysis of authenticity developed there by Kairi Raime, the Metagenomic DNA Analysis (MDA) in honey which we have already referred here.

The conversations with the Chinese sellers, recorded by the beekeepers... (Continue 2 minutes lecture HERE and the link to the video)


EUROPEAN UNION

TOWARDS NEW HONEY TRACEABILITY MEASURES

(Espacio Apícola, October 24th, 2024) As of November 28th, 2024, all honey exports to the European Union must include the identification of the establishment of origin and it must be duly registered in the list in accordance with article 127, section 3 "e", paragraphs ii and iii of Regulation 2017/625 of the EU, as indicated in the last Delegated Regulation signed on September 15th, 2023.

The information can be consulted on the EuLex site or in the specific summary for bee products that we published in Espacio Apícola 143, in Spanish last May.

ADULTERATION IN FOCUS

The main motivation for this measure is to control the quality of honey exported to the EU or substitutes that are sold as "honey" in a clearly fraudulent manner. The actions of the European Commission were reinforced last year through a report by the European Farmers' Organisation (COPA) and the European Agricultural Cooperatives (COGECA); this organisation, COPA-COGECA, published last year on March 23rd a report...(continue 3 minutes lecture HERE).


DUMPING NEWS
At October 18th, 2024

ARGENTINE HONEY: ARGENTINE HONEY: COUNTDOWN TO NOV. 12

(Espacio Apícola, October 18th, 2024) The second review of the anti-dumping actions against Argentine honey in the United States has finally begun. Based on the complexity of the analysis and the visits for verification carried out by DOC officials over 15 days among the commercial offices of the investigated companies during July, NEXCO and ACA were the last companies to receive the questionnaires for this new investigation period between June 1st, 2023 and May 31st, 2024.
This review will be a new challenge for all the stakeholders as it includes the extreme of two extreme models of administration in Argentina: one of Sergio Massa at the head of the Ministry of Economy of the Kirchnerist government and the beginning of the current Luis Caputo, this time, under the mandate of the libertarian Javier Milei.
According to the publication of the preliminary results in the United States Federal Register on July 8th, the Final Determination and its respective analysis should be published on November 12th, considering the 7-day delay caused by a computer service failure suffered by the DOC.
Although some Argentine stakeholders presume that this deadline will be extended until January 7th, as already announced by the DOC for the Final Determination in the Vietnamese case, there was not any notification to the other three ( Argentina, Brazil or India).

BRAZILIAN HONEY: CASTLING

(Espacio Apícola, October 18th, 2024) Since Apis Nativa was removed from the investigation with the approval of all parties, the DOC chose the third largest honey exporter from Brazil, MINAMEL.
MINAMEL, the first Brazilian company to export honey to the United States at the time of its founder Mr. Agenor Castagna (see the analysis of honey exports from Brazil to the United States in Espacio Apícola 140 - Aug. 2023), requested to be questioned by the DOC after its purchase of Apiarios Diamante, the company that was initially sanctioned for Adverse Facts Available (AFA). At that time, the DOC rejected MINAMEL's request, then the Court of International Trade exonerated Apiarios Diamante, paving the way for the merger that now, having been called for investigation, has the opportunity to clarify the situation of the entire honey export operation from Brazil.

INDIAN HONEY: SECOND REVIEW PROGRESSING

(Espacio Apícola, October 18th, 2024) After the Petitioners' criticisms and the Indian companies' joint responses, there was no news from the DOC and the Final Determination of the first review is awaited. The two Indian companies selected for this new review, Indocan and Shakti, are engaged in answering the questionnaires.

VIETNAMESE HONEY: WITH VERIFICATION VISITS

(Espacio Apícola, October 18, 2024) Following the significant reduction in tariffs promoted by US senators and representatives and finally imposed on Vietnamese honey during the initial investigation, the First Review doubled those values, which occurred within the framework of Vietnam's ratification as a non-market economy, with its significant implications for anti-dumping investigations.
Despite the second review being underway for Vietnamese honey, the DOC has arranged to visit the investigated companies to carry out a verification of the sales declared in the responses to the questionnaires and other needs that arise.
The first company to be visited will be Daklak HoneyBee Joint Stock Company (DakHoney) at its headquarters in the city of Buon Ma Thout, in the province of Dak Lak, Vietnam, from October 22nd to 25th. The other company under investigation, Ban Me Thuot Honeybee Joint Stock Company (BMT), will be audited for similar purposes between October 29th and November 1st. Because of this, the DOC had already anticipated that it could not meet the November 12th deadline for the publication of the Final Determination and is postponing said determination, in the case of Vietnam, until January 7th, 2025. (ACCESS doc. 4647178-01)

Previous week HERE

DUMPING NEWS
At October 5th, 2024

ARGENTINE HONEY: WAITING FOR THE FINAL DETERMINATION

(Espacio Apícola, October 3rd, 2024) The Department of Commerce was published the "draft" instructions for U.S. customs to implement the deposit of duties by companies that import honey from Argentina of the instructions as of the publication of the Final Determination of the First Administrative Review in the Federal Register. This First Review Final Determination corresponding to the interval 11/23/2021 to 05/31/2023 is expected next month. So far, the DOC has not published any document referring to the Price and Cost Verification that it carried out in the offices of the investigated companies, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. If there are no modifications to the actions taken, the honey from NEXCO S.A. imported into the United States will not pay tariffs, while the companies who import honey from ACA and all others must deposit 58.34% of its value for the honey imported during the reference period.

BRAZILIAN HONEY: ON WHEELS

(Espacio Apícola, October 3rd, 2024) Given the absence of suspended entries from certain companies during the Period of Review, among which is the one initially sanctioned and then exonerated by the Court of International Trade, Apiarios Diamante, the Department of Commerce communicated its intention to rescind this review for those companies. For its part, Apis Nativa, which in the review received a preliminary tariff of 0%, withdrew its request to participate in the second review. Likewise, the Petitioners withdrew their request for investigation of Apis Nativa for the second review in progress.

I

NDIAN HONEY: RESPONSES TO THE PETITIONERS' ACCUSATIONS

(Espacio Apícola, October 4th, 2024) The two companies under investigation, Allied Natural Product and Indocan Honey, responded through their lawyers (International Trade Lawyers) with three consecutive documents to the latest accusations made by the Petitioners (Access doc. 4642272-01 ff.). Basically, both companies appeal to the truth and sufficiency of the information provided by them in the investigation, which is why they argue that they should not be sanctioned in whole or in part with Adverse Facts Available (AFA). Methodological aspects also come into play regarding whether prices and costs should be analyzed on a quarterly basis, as the DOC has done, or whether they should be annualized as proposed by the Petitioners. Let us remember that since the original investigation, the Petitioners have requested that the DOC conduct an on-site Verification of the Indian companies, but so far this alternative has not been considered by the DOC.

VIETNAMESE HONEY: WEEK WITHOUT NEWS

(Espacio Apícola, October 4th, 2024) The development of the Second Review is progressing with formal interventions and the common requests for postponement of dates for the submission of responses to the questionnaires sent by the DOC.

Previous week HERE

HONEY AUTHENTICITY

EUROPEAN BEEKEEPERS DEMAND METAGENOMIC DNA ANALYSIS IN HONEY

(Espacio Apícola - October 3rd, 2024) European professional beekeepers, alarmed by the lack of sales, the presence of a large amount of honey at very low prices in certain supermarket chains and the publication of the European Union last year indicating that 46% of imported honey is adulterated, they carried out their own market research and arrive at the conclusion that in the supermarkets where they bought honey to analyze, 80% of the samples were adulterated honey or directly a fake product, which emulates honey and is sold as such.

They bought 29 jars labeled as "honey" in different supermarkets in different towns in Germany and added a jar of honey purchased from a well-known beekeeper as a control sample. They took the samples to internationally recognised laboratories for testing. All the samples complied with European regulations. However, Bernhard Heuvel, president of the European Professional Beekeepers' Association (EPBA) and vice-president of the German Professional and Commercial Beekeepers' Association (DBIB), he says these adulterated or fake products are so cheap that they cannot be honey, but not only that, "when you taste (fake) honey, its texture, smell and taste are strange..(continue 3 minutes lecture HERE)


MARKETS

European Commission consultation to liberalise the market with Ukraine

(Espacio Apícola - September 24th, 2024 - ACTUALIZADO EL 7 de octubre)"The initiative aims to advance permanent and reciprocal liberalisation of trade with Ukraine, with the aim to work towards Ukraine's integration into the single market". (CALL FOR EVIDENCE FOR AN INITIATIVE - without an impact assessment - Ref. Ares (2024) 6238483 - 03/09/2024).

Traditional Ukrainian honey exports to Russia have been sent to the United States and Europe for some years now. Since January 1st 2016, an EU-Ukraine Association Agreement establishing a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) has been provisionally in force.

In June 2022, four months after Putin's invasion of Ukraine began, when the US investigation... (continue 3 minutes lecture HERE).


DUMPING NEWS
At September 6th to 12th, 2024

ARGENTINE HONEY: INFLATION, THAT BIG STUMBLE

(Espacio Apícola, September 13th, 2024) After we announced last week the visit of officials from the United States Department of Commerce to carry out a "Verification of prices and costs" at the offices of the Association of Argentine Cooperatives, this Monday the DOC announced the visit to NEXCO S.A. for the same purpose next week, from September 16th to 20th, (Access doc. 4627968-01).
Deliberations continued in the offices of A.C.A. as the time of this report. The thing is, what and how to index purchases, expenses, sales and how to make valuations in dollars in the midst of an inflationary process like Argentina's is not easy.
In this regard, as a preview of what will be the week of verifications that the DOC will carry out in NEXCO offices next week, Morris, Manning and Martin bureau, lawyers of the company, presented yesterday an alternative proposal to that of White and Case, lawyers of A.C.A. on August 29 (Access doc. 4623044-01). Both proposals are very interesting to analyze and there is certainly expectation for the result of these visits, since they are the first that the DOC has made to companies questioned in this investigation for dumping that has other actors in equally or more confusing scenarios such as those of India and Vietnam.

BRAZILIAN HONEY: A QUIET WEEK

(Espacio Apícola, September 13th, 2024) Apis Nativa submitted last Friday a document requesting that the comparison of honey sales prices to the United States with a third country be used since their sales in the local market are less than 5% of what is traded with the United States. They did not make public the name of the third country proposed (Access doc. 627243-01).

INDIAN HONEY: A DÉJÀ VU WITH ELIOT NESS

(Espacio Apícola, September 13th, 2024) Indocan was supposed to respond yesterday to the criticism raised last week by the Petitioners regarding the filtering of honey, but requested that the deadline for its rebuttal be extended until Thursday, September 19th. For its part, the DOC has already selected the two Indian companies that will be selected for the second period of review. They will be named Indocan and Shakti for being the ones that sold the most volume in the period to be audited (Access doc. 4629945-01).

VIETNAMESE HONEY: A QUIET WEEK TOO

(Espacio Apícola, September 13th, 2024) No significant news in this investigation this week, as of the time of this report.

Previous week HERE

DUMPING NEWS
At September 1st to 5th, 2024

ARGENTINE HONEY: ANALYSTS' USDOC GO TO INSPECT IN PERSON

(Espacio Apícola, September 5th, 2024) Two officials from the United States Department of Commerce, international trade compliance analysts, will travel to Buenos Aires to "verify sales and costs" of Argentine Cooperative Association (ACA) next Monday September 9th until Friday September 13th. It is emphasized that the information to be collected is only for the purposes of verification and the greatest collaboration is expressly requested to avoid the risk of a sanction for Adverse Facts Available (AFA) that would aggravate the situation of the company (ACCESS doc. 4624720-01).

In addition, due to global internet service interruptions caused by failures in the update of a security software on July 19th, the deadlines for the start, preliminary or final determinations are postponed for seven days because there is not enough time to process all the documentation that was submitted all at once and late due to the interruption (ACCESS 4624874-01).

In another order, the DOC again nominated ACA and Nexco for the next administrative review covering raw honey exports from June 1st, 2023 to May 31st, 2024. Although several Argentine companies registered for this stage, only the Petitioners suggested that ACA and Nexco be nominated and then the DOC, after analyzing the exported volumes and other aspects, confirmed this choice (ACCESS 4624681-01).

BRAZILIAN HONEY: ENDLESS SADNESS

(Espacio Apícola, September 5th, 2024)
I feel a silence in my soul,
that makes me sob...
I have a void in my soul,
that I cannot fill... This is how Miltinho's song "endless sadness" begins. Following the DOC decisions in favor of Brazilian companies that we published last week, Brazil 2 vs. Petitioners 0, the petitioners withdrew their request for a hearing with the Department of Commerce. Enjoy Miltinho's song on YouTube Endless Sadness.

INDIAN HONEY: A DÉJÀ VU WITH ELIOT NESS

(Espacio Apícola, September 5th, 2024) While more than 5,000 metric tons of extra-light amber honey from India were imported into the United States between May, June and July of this year, at average prices below $2,100 per ton, the lowest import price for this category, the lawyers and financial analysts of the American Honey Producers Association (AHPA) and the Sioux Honey Association (SHA), the Petitioners, are seeing if they can catch the company onto the honey filtering that the Indocan firm would have declared in some shipments according to the 161-page response to the supplementary economic questionnaire that the Indian company submitted last month. If after so many accusations of murders and crimes Eliot Ness was able to put Al Capone in jail for tax evasion... who knows?

In response to the Petitioners' complaint last week, Indocan immediately responded by saying that it is false that a 25-micron filter removes all the pollen from honey... (ACCESS doc. 4609616-01).

Next week, the case reports can be submitted until September 12th and the respective rebuttals are due next Tuesday, September 17th (although it is most likely that some will ask for more time) (ACCESS doc. 4626120-01).

VIETNAMESE HONEY: THINKING ABOUT THE NEXT REVIEW

(Espacio Apícola, September 5th, 2024) The Daklak Honeybee Joint Stock Company asked the United States Department of Commerce that, if it is not chosen for the next review period, they want to be audited as a voluntary respondent (ACCESS 4624800-01).

Previous week HERE

DUMPING NEWS
At AUGUST 17 to 30, 2024

ARGENTINE HONEY: A.C.A. FINALLY FILED ITS LONG-AWAITED CLAIM

(Espacio Apícola, August 30, 2024) The Argentine Cooperative Association (ACA) finally filed yesterday its claim for what they considered an error in the calculation of antidumping duties during the period of the First Administrative Review.

ACA says: "the programming language employed in this first administrative review differs significantly from that used to calculate CV Profit in the underlying investigation. The impact of this change in programming was massive for ACA; it increased ACA's CV Profit on third country sales by a factor of more than 10 (that is, by more than 1000%) and caused the Department to assign ACA a preliminary dumping margin which was similarly overstated."

This would be due to the fact that the effects of inflation and devaluation of the Argentine peso would not have been considered according to the dates of each sale made. They also claim that the DOC did not provide timely notice of the change in method.

The Petitioners are now expected to comment, as well as an explanation from the DOC regarding the alleged methodological change, as well as a response to the calculation proposals suggested by ACA. It should be recalled that the tariffs set for ACA rose to more than 58% in the Preliminary Determination of this First Administrative Review and that, having reduced the tariff to zero for the other company under investigation (Nexco), then that tariff of 58% would remain for all other Argentine honey exporters to the United States (Access doc. 4623044-01).

BRAZILIAN HONEY: BRAZIL 2 Vs. PETITIONERS 0

(Espacio Apícola, August 30, 2024)As the rebuttal that MELBRAS opportunely filed regarding the suggestions to apply sanctions for Adverse Facts Available (AFA), the other company, APIS NATIVA, did the same.

On the other hand, in response to the claims filed by the petitioners, the Department of Commerce ratified the changes made by the Court of International Trade on June 5, by which the duties of AFA against Supermel were repealed and reduced to 10.52% for said company and those of the rest of the companies were set at 9.38%. If this is ratified in the Final Determination expected in November, the DOC will appropriately instruct the customs and border control offices (Access doc. 4620941-01).

The DOC immediately selected both companies of the ongoing investigation (MELBRAS and APIS NATIVA) for the next period of review and has already sent them the corresponding questionnaires, thus the Brazilian companies are the most advanced in this new stage (ACCESS doc. 4619980-01). Given the circumstances, the Petitioners resigned their request for a hearing to the DOC.

INDIAN HONEY: SUSPICION OF ADULTERATION?

(Espacio Apícola, August 30, 2024)The Petitioners' rebuttal to the extensive response that INDOCAN submitted to the supplementary questionnaire on August 6 has finally arrived. They request that certain information that INDOCAN presented as confidential be made public and point out that INDOCAN claims to have filtered some honey below 25 microns and that this would remove all pollen and traceability from the honey (or even a guarantee of authenticity, ACCESS doc. 4620433-01 dated August 26, 2024). News in development.

VIETNAMESE HONEY: CERTIFICATES FOR EACH COMPANIES TO OPERATE

(Espacio Apícola, August 30, 2024) Over the past two weeks, several Vietnamese companies have submitted their respective "Separate Rates Certification", that certifies the national origin of individuals or companies in order to be able to operate commercially with the United States for members of a country considered Non-Market Economy, a condition that the DOC recently ratified for Vietnam. Other companies submitted their application for this certificate.

Finally, the DOC also responded to all the Senators and Representatives that they had sent letters referring specifically to Vietnam's status as a Non-Market Economy (ACCESS 4620652-01, August 26, 2024).

Previous week HERE

DUMPING NEWS
At AUGUST 12 TO 16, 2024

ARGENTINE HONEY: A QUIET WEEK

(Espacio Apícola, August 17, 2024) The Department of Commerce (DOC) published a Rescission of the administrative review of part of the antidumping duty order on raw honey from Argentina, an administrative communication involving five companies that ( we understand) would not have exported raw honey to the United States during the administrative review period.

Otherwise, no documents have been published regarding the preliminary determination or about the new review period.

BRAZILIAN HONEY: AN EXPECTED REACTION

(Espacio Apícola, August 17, 2024) MELBRAS responded yesterday at noon to the rebuttal that the Petitioners had presented the previous week. Petitioners have requested that the Department of Commerce (DOC) should apply Adverse Fact Availables (AFA ) against the Brazilian companies for considering insufficient or incomplete responses to the investigation questionnaires.

MELBRAS claims that the DOC should not apply the AFA sanctions since it would not be in accordance with the law, they accuse the Petitioners of not correctly assessing the responses of MELBRAS and its suppliers, that they complain a lot about what they consider to be very rudimentary data from beekeepers and middlemen and that they already requested that sanctions against MELBRAS during the original investigation and before the Court of International Trade and that in both instances this request was rejected, so MELBRAS claims that the DOC should dismiss these claims and determine in the same way as the previous actions (ACCESS doc. 4616296-01).

INDIAN HONEY: ON WAIT

(Espacio Apícola, August 17, 2024) After the INDOCAN extensive answer document to the last questionnaire presented on August 6, the Petitioners ask on Thursday 16 more time to present their rebuttal. The DOC granted yesterday the deadline requested by the petitioners up to August 23rd.

VIETNAMESE HONEY: STAFF RENEWED

(Espacio Apícola, August 17, 2024) After the harsh responses that Vietnamese companies received last week, as we have described in a timely manner, the companies Ban Me Thuot and Dak Nguyen Hong reinforced their staff of lawyers involved in their defense with Jonathan Freed.

Previous week HERE

DUMPING NEWS
AT AUGUST 5th to 8th 2024

SITUATION OF HONEY FROM ARGENTINA

(Espacio Apícola - August 9th, 2024) Yesterday afternoon, the petitioners submitted a comment on the documentary basis provided by the US Customs and Border Protection (CCP) for the next Period of Review (POR) in which the DOC intends to analyze individual cases based on the requests received from different exporting companies to which we have already referred. In their letter, the petitioners point out that the DOC should, as it usually does, group the information that belongs to each company since in the documents there would appear different acronyms or spelling errors names that could lead one to believe that they are different companies when in fact they belong to only one. Then, and based on the difficulties of the DOC to analyze all the companies, the petitioners suggest that one in particular be investigated.

(Espacio Apícola - August 8th, 2024) The petitioners, the American Honey Producers Association and the Sioux Honey Association (AHPA and SHA), sent a brief letter to formally requested a hearing to the Department of Commerce (DOC) on Tuesday, August 6, to address their rebuttal on the preliminary results of the First Administrative Review of antidumping sanctions against honey imported from Argentina and which included the analysis of imports during the period of review (POR) from November 23, 2021 to May 31, 2023 (ACCESS doc. 4609955-01).

For their side, the Argentine companies under investigation, NEXCO and ACA, also requested a hearing to their respective address analysis of the preliminary result of the aforementioned review. In particular, ACA, in a memorandum indexed in the official site of International Trade Administration of the US Department of Commerce's (ACCESS) under number 4588833-01, noted that the DOC had made errors in the final calculation of the tariff imposed on that company.

SITUATION OF HONEY FROM BRAZIL

(Espacio Apícola, August 9th, 2024) In the context of the recent Preliminary Determination rebuttal by the Petitioners and their request to apply sanctions of Adverse Facts Availables (AFA) against both Brazilian companies investigated during the POR and in view of the imminent expiration of the deadlines to present a rebuttal, next Monday, August 12th, this morning MELBRAS ask the DOC to extend the deadline to make its argument (ACCESS doc. 4611685-01); to which the DOC agreed just after noon today, leaving the deadline next Friday, August 16th for all stakeholders (ACCESS doc 4612016-01).

(Espacio Apícola, August 8th, 2024) The US Petitioners (AHPA and SHA) formally requested a hearing from the DOC on Monday, August 5th, to defend the arguments of their rebuttal in light of the Preliminary Determination made regarding the review of the Brazilian honey case.

They presented also, onTuesday, August 6th, an extensive rebuttal to said review arguing that the cost of production of beekeepers and middlemen, from both Apis Nativa and Melbras, are not reliable. That their incomplete presentations should be sanctioned as adverse facts (AFA) in full or, failing that, the DOC should continue using its normal weighted average annual cost methodology with respect to the company Apis Nativa.

SITUATION OF HONEY FROM INDIA

(Espacio Apícola, August 9th, 2024) The petitioners have not submitted yet any comments on INDOCAN's recent response to the latest questionnaire sent by the DOC, but yesterday afternoon they ask a hearing to DOC to reinforce their arguments presented on July 30 when they renewed their request for an on-site investigation of the Indian companies (ACCESS doc. 4605901-01).

(Espacio Apícola, August 10th, 2024) Just after noon yesterday, the Petitioners suggested specifically two Indian companies to be investigated for the new ongoing Period of Review (POR) (ACCESS doc 4612037-01).

(Espacio Apícola, August 8th, 2024) After the publication of the Preliminary Determination, the DOC sent a supplementary questionnaire to INDOCAN due to the deficient information that they had provided and that was requested by the petitioners (AHPA and SHA).

After postponing the due date of the expected responses, today INDOCAN presented the response to the expanded questionnaire. Comments from the petitioners or the DOC are awaited, if applicable.

SITUATION OF HONEW FROM VIETMAN

(Espacio Apícola, August 8th, 2024) Vietnamese companies received a hard blow to the process of determining anti-dumping actions yesterday, not only in the beekeeping sector but in all productions from that country that are exported to the United States.

Following the political mediations that in 2022 pulverized the tariffs opportunely determined by the DOC, the Period of Review (POR) began with a request, received by the DOC, for a Change Circumstances Review (CCR) in order to review Vietnam's situation in front of the United States as a "Non-Market Economy" (NME) for which the DOC should have applied a special AD analysis method for the honey imported from Vietnam. Based on this, the DOC agreed to a review under special circumstances. Yesterday the validity of the Non-Market Economy determination for Vietnam in 2002 was published in the official journal of the United States (Federal Register), according to which the DOC must address anti-dumping investigations according to special parameters for that condition.

Given this situation, the Petitioners requested a hearing with the DOC, most likely to review the tariffs set during the initial investigation and those recently published for the review that has just concluded.

For its part, the DOC has already published instructions to the country's customs to explain the modus operandi with each Vietnamese company and how to apply the established duties.



DUMPING TODAY

CRAZY RACE AGAINST TARIFFS

August 1st, 2024

(Espacio Apícola - August 1st, 2024) At the request of several companies from countries sanctioned for dumping in 2022 on honey exported to the United States, the petitioners and some local companies and after the First Administrative Review that concluded on June 28th with the preliminary determination that we duly published (go to the note here), the United States Department of Commerce (DOC)  has initiated a new period of review for all particular cases.

This beginning of the new Administrative Review was published for several antidumping and countervailing duty sanctions on July 29th, including sanctions for dumping honey from Argentina, Brazil, India and Vietnam.

Based on this, the Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP) was asked for... (continue reading about 2 minutes


UNITED STATES

PRICE OF DOMESTIC AND IMPORTED LIGHT HONEY FROM ARGENTINA IN JUNE 2023 AND JUNE 2024

July 29th, 2024

(Espacio Apícola - July 29, 2024)The United States Department of Agriculture published the honey market report for June 2024 in that country last Friday, July 26.

The price paid for honey from Argentina has increased slightly in the second quarter of the year. After a catastrophic February where white honeys reached an average of just over 2,320 dollars per metric ton, in what we believe was the end of a negative slope that prevailed throughout 2023 (see Espacio Apícola 142) and after a month of March with a very significant increase in price, particularly for white honeys, between April and June all categories of honey imported from Argentina into the United States were adjusted... (continue reading about 4 minutes


Amended Remand Order

THE INTERNATIONAL TRADE COURT REDUCED TARIFFS ON BRAZIL HONEY

July 15th, 2024

(Espacio Apícola - July 15, 2024)The International Trade Court of the United States issued a Modified Remand Order last June that forced the Department of Commerce to review and modify the anti-dumping sanctions originally imposed on Brazilian honeys imported into the United States.

The final determination of the investigation against dumping of honey imported into the United States from Argentina, Brazil, India and Vietnam was released in April 2022. Of the two Brazilian companies investigated, MELBRAS completed the investigation and received a tariff of 7.89%. The Department of Commerce sanctioned the other company, Supermel/Apiarios Diamante, in Adverse Facts Availables (AFA) for which it received the highest tariff, increased with a punitive rate, reaching 83.72% tax on the FOB value of the honey. For the rest of the companies ... (continue reading about 3 minutes


BEE HEALTH

NEW THREAT TO EASTERN EUROPEAN AND CAUCASUS APIARIES

July 5th, 2024

(Espacio Apícola - July 13, 2024) Tropilaelaps spp. is a mite native of Southeast Asia. The original host of Tropilaelaps mercedesae was the Asian giant honey bee, which makes open air honeycombs, Apis dorsata and from this it would have passed to Apis cerana, which makes honeycombs in cavities, in Thailand, Pakistan, and Myanmar, A. florea and A. indica in India, A. laboriosa in Vietnam, and A. dorsata in Palawan, the Philippines, as described by Panuwan Chantawannaku and others in a paper published in 2018.

When Apis mellifera shares the same areas where those species that are natural hosts live, it becomes infected and, the same article cited indicates that Tropilaelaps spp. is more harmful than Varroa destructor in some Southeast Asian countries. However, this is not the case in South Korea where Woo and Lee reported it in 1993, nor in ... (continue reading about 3 minutes


HONEY FROM NATIVE FOREST

EXPORT OF MISTOL HONEY FOR A GOURMET DISTRIBUTOR

July 5th, 2024

(Espacio Apícola - July 5, 2024) The Beekeeping and Agricultural Cooperative of Villa de Soto, in western Córdoba (Argentina), completed its first export of bottled honey to the United States. In front of Villa de Soto city extends the "Traslasierra" Valley, the last refuge of the Native Forest conserved in Córdoba Province that extends in an arc, located mainly to the west of the "Sierras Grandes" (great hills), which begins to the south on the border with San Luis province and lies in the north towards meeting the "Ansenuza" Sea, a high salinity lagoon, the largest salt lake in South America, which is located in the northeast of Córdoba province, Argentina.

This Native Forest composed of the characteristic vegetation of the Western "Chaco" region has several honey sources. Among them, the different species of Prosopis stand out, popularly known as carob trees ("algarrobos" are the same genus than "mesquite"), provide abundant nectar with which honey bees make white honey at the beginning of spring and another amber-colored honey that comes from "mistol" in the middle of the spring season, already with higher temperatures. The "jarilla", the "atamisqui", the "piquillín" are other of the characteristic blooms of the region.

Mistol honey is very dense and viscous, with an intense ... (continue reading about 3 minutes


US: ANTI-DUMPING TARIFF ON IMPORTED HONEY

PRELIMINARY DETERMINATION OF THE FIRST ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW

July 13th, 2024

(Espacio Apícola - July 3, 2024) The first administrative review of antidumping sanctions applied in 2022 against honey imported from Argentina, Brazil, India and Vietnam where carried out by the US Department of Commerce (DOC).

The review period included commercial operations carried out between November 23, 2021, when the initial preliminary determination was issued, until May 31, 2023.

There were significant changes to the import tariffs on honey from the four countries investigated with a clear advantage ... (continue reading about 3 minutes


HONEY PRICE IN THE US

THE BOOMERANG OF ANTI-DUMPING SANCTIONS

April 1st, 2024

(Espacio Apícola, April 1st, 2024) The price of Argentine honey in the US continues to fall. The recent report of the USDA rectifies the missing information of the previous and reveals significant data on the price paid for Argentine honey, that of other supplier countries and that of the American beekeepers themselves also.

Clearly the "organic" honey from Brazil and Uruguay apparently certified by the same German company raises suspicions. They could not sell it in Europe due to quality problems. Some Brazilian exporters admit that they process honey with dehumidification systems which is why it is considered adulterated or because it has levels of glyphosate that are not compatible with the European market. Neither of the two causes would be a problem to sell the honey in the United States, which stopped publishing honey adulterated events in the import alerts more than two years ago (Import Alert 36-1). On the other hand, buying that "organic" seal also coming from... (continue reading about 3 minutes


US ANTI-DUMPING DUTIES REVIEW

WAITING FOR PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW BY JUNE 2024

March 30th, 2024

(Espacio Apícola, March 30th, 2024)According to the regulations of the United States Department of Commerce (DOC), on March 1st, this should have been issued the Preliminary Results of the First Administrative Review of the antidumping tariff order carried out between November 2021 and May 2023. According to the same regulations and given the impossibility of complying with that deadline, the DOC resorted to the maximum period allowed, postponing the publication of the Preliminary Results until next June 28. (according to the memorandum published by the DOC with Barcode: 4507919-01, dated February 13th, 2024).

What happened during these 9 months of review? (HERE our report of December 22nd, 2023) In March 2024 were modified the scenarios mainly about the companies of the countries... (continue reading about 5 minutes


FRENCH HONEY MARKET

FRENCH BEEKEEPERS ARE LOSING SALES IN THEIR LOCAL MARKET

March 4th, 2024

(Espacio Apícola Reuters - Swissinfo.ch, March 4th, 2024) We transcribe the news from the Paris branch of the Reuters Agency published by the Swissinfo site, of the Hevetic Confederation, under the title "France offers aid to its struggling beekeepers amid farmer protests" on February 23rd.

"PARIS (Reuters) - France has set aside 5 million euros ($5.41 million) to help its beekeepers, the agriculture ministry said on Friday, a group of producers that has joined protests this month by farmers... (continue reading about 1 minute


HONEY MARKET

ABRUPT HONEY IMPORTS DROP IN THE US DURING JANUARY 2024

February 29th, 2024

(Espacio Apícola, February 29, 2024) Honey imports into the United States showed a sharp decline between January 2023 and January 2024, the data comes from the respective reports published monthly by the United States Department of Agriculture.

In addition, the downward trend in prices for Argentine honey that prevailed throughout 2023 continued. In the year-on-year analysis, extra light amber honey, below 50 mm Pfund on the traditional scale, fell more than... (continue reading about 1 minute


EFSA - EU

REVIEW OF THE TRANSGENIC CORN MON 810 AUTHORISATION

January 24th, 2024

(ESPACIO APICOLA, January 24th, 2024) The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) published on January 19th the Assessment of genetically modified maize MON 810 for renewal authorisation under Regulation, according to the specific regulation of the Community.

Genetically modified (GMO) corn MON 810 contains the Cry1Ab gene, from Bacillus thuringiensis, which produces a toxin that affects the... (continue reading about 2 minutes


HONEY MARKET IN ARGENTINA

LOW INTERNATIONAL PRICE EVEN IF THE RELATIVE PRICE IMPROVES

January 20th, 2024

(ESPACIO APICOLA, January 20th, 2024) Averaging the honey harvest in Argentina, production shows great contrasts between areas in which nothing was produced and others with high yields. The late rains and cold slowed down the beginning of the season in much of the most important beekeeping region of the country. The nectar flow season is expected to extend a little longer than usual.

The NVDI Vegetation Index Map (photo) published by the National Meteorological Service for the first half of January clearly shows the response... (continue reading about 3 minutes


EFSA - EU

HONEY BEE COLONY MODEL FOR PESTICIDES RISK ASSESSMENT

December 27th, 2023

(ESPACIO APICOLA, December 27th, 2023) The European Food Safety Agency EFSA promotes the production of a computational model of a beehive for the pesticides risk assessment. Today, in its third version, ApisRAM has already described the environmental scenarios with which it will interact in order to carry out, in the near future, the pesticide risk assessment in all corners of the European Union.

It is expected that this tool will already be operational and will be useful by 2025, when the Apimondia Congress is also planned in Copenhagen. Among other objectives, this model is focused... (continue reading about 4 minutes


US HONEY MARKET

AUSTERE CHRISTMAS FOR ARGENTINE BEEKEEPING 2023

Administrative Review of Anti Dumping Sanctions against honey from Argentina, Brazil, India and Vietnam in the United States

December 22nd, 2023

(ESPACIO APICOLA, December 22nd, 2023) The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) began this administrative review last August 29. The DOC is checking the performance of the honey exports of sanctioned countries to the United States during a period of 18 months between the application of the preliminary sanction from November 23rd of 2021 to May 30th of 2023.

REVIEW OF ARGENTINE CASES

In the case of honey from Argentina, beyond the initial measures regarding NEXCO's lawsuit before the United States Court of International Trade and the changes in the chosen market of reference to compare the Honey export prices of ACA, which we describe and analyze in our last magazine (Espacio Apícola nº 141), the investigation continues its course in what at times seems like something already seen and experienced, a true déjà-vu.

As the DOC could not get a Cost of Production (COP) for the investigated companies in the other three countries the DOC arrives at a final determination based on... (continue reading about 6 minutes


Argentine Beekeeping

BEEKEEPING SEASON 2023-2024 IN ARGENTINA

November 18th, 2023

(Espacio Apícola, November 18th, 2023) So far in the beekeeping season in Argentina, lemon honey was a failure in Tucumán, a province in the north of Argentina, as well as in the southeast of Corrientes, a province in front of Brazil in the east, where excess of rainfall ruined the honey harvest. For its part, the Monte Nativo Cordobés (Cordoban native forest) was very weak compared to previous years.

The lack of rain and temperature fluctuations have delayed the season in the rest of the country between 15 and 30 days, with the low minimum temperatures being very inportant in the Pampa Húmeda, Río Negro, Mendoza, where the minimum temperatures were below and in some cases well below the historical average that has been established between 1991 and 2020 as a reference period to determine anomalies according to the National Meteorological Service in Argentina (SMN).

As far as soil moisture is concerned, the drought of previous years... (continue reading about 3 minutes


Argentine Beekeeping

Geographical Indication of Honey from Cordoban Natural Forest

October 17th, 2023

(Espacio Apícola, October 17th, 2021) In their desire to distinguish their products and marketing conditions, producers and beekeeping cooperatives from Traslasierra, Ischilin, Cruz del Eje, among other towns, departments and areas of the northwest arc of the Córdoba province, Argentina, were finally able to submit a request to the Ministry of Agriculture for the recognition of Geographical Indication (GI) of Honey from Cordoban Natural Forest.

The northwest arc of the Córdoba province, Argentina (map of the province indicating five departments of the western Córdoba corresponding to the publication of its Apibotanical Map in our magazine Espacio Apícola nº 80 - Dec. 2007), is an area of more than 4 million hectares in which predominate... (continue reading about 2 minutes


SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE: ECONOMY OR ECOLOGY

October 14th, 2023

(Espacio Apícola, October 14th, 2021) A new review that includes the analysis of data from more than 2,500 sites reveals that global warming, resulting from greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation and land use change in favor of agriculture is causing the reduction of pollinators and consequently puts regional production at risk, representing a risk to human well-being.

Under the title: "Key tropical crops at risk from... (continue reading about 2 minutes


BALANCE OF THE APIMONDIA CONGRESS CHILE 2023

4 de octubre de 2023

(Espacio Apícola, 2 minutes 30 seconds, subtitles in English)


ADVANCE OF THE ARGENTINE BEEKEEPING SEASON 2023

October 2nd, 2023

(Espacio Apícola, Córdoba, Argentina, October 2nd 2023) We have pointed on the map of the rainfall gradient of the National Meteorological Service of Argentina the areas based on the different zonal reports that we have received and that we publish below.
Furthermore, the normal advance of each area can be inferred according to the different isohyets that show the rainfall gradient that increases from West to East in almost the entire national territory and that has the month of September as its starting point.

September was gone in the central area (COR) of Argentina with normal conditions, predominance of cold and dry winds from the southern sector, with temperatures in a range of... (continue reading about 5 minutes


EFSA

UPDATED GUIDANCE TO EVALUATE AGROCHEMICALS

June 4th, 2023

(EFSA, May 11th 2023) The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has reviewed its guidance document on how to assess risks to honey bees, bumble bees and solitary bees from "plant protection products" (a euphemism for one-dimensional thinking. For pollinators they are agrotoxic). The revised guidance document takes into account the latest scientific knowledge and contains the most up-to-date methodologies for conducting risk assessments in this area.

Find out about this New Guide for Risk Assessment on the EFSA website by clicking here (4 minutes reading).

Those interested in learning more about the EFSA guidance on the risk assessment of plant protection products on bees can join our public online info session on 13 June 2023.


APIMONDIA 2023

INTERNATIONAL HONEY CONTEST

May 13th, 2023

(Espacio Apícola, May 13th 2023) All registered amateur or professional beekeepers in the 48th Apimondia International Beekeeping Congress can participate in the International Honey Contest of the Congress to be held in Espacio Riesco, Santiago de Chile. Honey from packagers will not be accepted.

Samples must be submitted before July 31, 2023.

This year we will only proceed with... (continue reading about 3 minutes)


ANTIBIOTIC RESIDUES IN HONEY

February 27th, 2023

(Espacio Apícola, February 27th 2023) The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an alert for honey imported from Saudi Arabia containing ciprofloxacin residues last February 22nd.

Ciprofloxacin is a broad-spectrum antibiotic, from the fluoroquinolone family, a drug reserved as a last resort against infections that show resistance to other antibiotics.

It is harmful to the intestinal flora, so it is... (continue reading about 2 minutes)


HUGE PLACE FOR THE NEXT 48TH APIMONDIA CONGRESS

February 17th, 2023

(Espacio Apícola, February 17th, 2023) Last Wednesday, February 15th, we visited "Espacio Riesco" the Convention and Events Center of Santiago de Chile where the next Apimondia Congress will be held this year between September 4th to 8th.

In the following video (less than 2 minutes) you can appreciate the magnitude of the facilities and amenities that this Convention Center offers to visitors.

In turn, we inform that the reception of abstracts is now open for all those who want to present their work at the 48th Apimondia Congress in front of the following commissions:
Apitherapy
Bee Biology
Beekeeping Economy
Beekeeping for Rural Development
Bee Health
Pollination and Bee Flora
Beekeeping Quality and Technology

Visit the Congress site HERE to find out and register


ARGENTINE HONEY HARVEST 2023

January 26th, 2023

(Espacio Apícola, January 26th, 2023) This season, the honey harvest in Argentina is advancing on delay also. Last year, it was delayed in the central region and this year the honey harvest in the "Parque Chaqueño" area of Córdoba continued until this week inclusive. The lack of rain complicated mainly the prairies of the Central Region of Argentina, while towards the province of Buenos Aires the significant rains that fell in a large area of the provincial territory this week augured a good February for many of those who have already completed satisfactory the first round. Photo: unloading supers with honey in the extraction room of the Villa de Soto Cooperative, Córdoba, courtesy Mr Luciano Cuenca.


HONEY PRICE TO THE PRODUCER 2023

January 26th, 2023

(Bolivar, Bs.As., Argentina, January 24, 2023) The price of honey paid to the producer is around US$ 2.50 plus VAT per kg of light-colored honey, below 50 mm Pfund, while for the darker honeys the operations continue to be very slow and with many requirements. Darker honeys are being bought as long as they have low HMF, a high ratio of Fructose to Glucose, low in glyphosate residues and no Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids (PA), Mr. Mauricio Bigne tells us. Despite the fact that the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) did not include honey in the product chart attached to Regulation 1881/2006 on Maximum Residue Levels (MRL) of PA in honey (See Espacio Apícola No. 134), the market continues to use this parameter to restrict buying or lower prices. The Argentine beekeeper is being paid US$1.60 per kg of honey over 50 mm Pfund. It should be noted that the payment is received in Argentine pesos and at the official rate of the dollar currency of the Argentine National Bank (Photo), 50% lower than the market price of the US currency.


EXPO-MACIÁ 2023 HONEY CONTEST

(Maciá, Entre Ríos, Argentina, January 24, 2023) The Municipality of Maciá invites Argentine and foreign beekeepers to participate in the Honey Contest that it organizes within the framework of the Api-Expo that will be carried out there from March 24 to 26.
Honeys are classified by color into three categories:
- Clear honeys, up to 40 mm Pfund,
- Amber honeys, from 40.1 to 79.9 mm Pfund, and
- Dark honeys, from 80 mm Pfund.

At the same time, only honeys with a moisture up to 20% participate, clean of notable impurities and without signs of fermentation. Then, during the fair, a panel of people minimally trained in sensory analysis serves as the jury. Contact: lepmamacia@gmail.com


APIMONDIA 2023 IN ESPACIO RIESCO SANTIAGO

January 5th, 2023

(Espacio Apícola, January 5th, 2023) You can hire your stand now for the Commercial Exhibition that will carry out beside the 48th International Congress, Apimondia2023, to be held in Santiago de Chile between September 4 and 8. On the right, the Google Map showing the route from the Espacio Riesco complex to the center of Providencia, the closest area of hotels, gastronomy and services.

The congress will take place in the Espacio Riesco, a complex located to the north of the city, very accessible by car from the entrance route from... (continue reading about 2 minutes)


Argentine Beekeeping 2022 Balance sheet

December 23rd, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, December 23rd, 2022) Argentine Beekeeping 2022 Balance sheet

  1. SEASON ON DELAY
    More delayed than last year, the algarrobo honey harvest in the Parque Chaqueño Occidental in the west and northwest of the province of Córdoba, although uneven, has given relief to several migratory beekeepers who came from Tucumán and Northern Argentina where the season was not good. In addition, those who were careful to get the algarrobo honey before the mistol or other species blooms that turn them darker appear will achieve a better position to sell them in bulk.
    Other areas have a very irregular performance such as the north of Santa Fe or the south center of the province of Entre Ríos. In the Humid Pampas area the beehives are developing very well but they are getting darkers honeys than usual which is a clear indicator of drought. Rains are expected to change the outlook.

  2. INTERNATIONAL HONEY TRADE
    Exports of Argentine honey to the United States have been normal and the market has largely absorbed the anti dumping sanctions (Espacio Apícola 135 - Spanish only) against honey from Argentina, although the price... (continue reading about 5 minutes)


ERADICATE XENOPHOBIA IN BEEKEEPING LANGUAGE

November 25th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, November 25th, 2022) In the final note of her doctoral dissertation at the University of California San Diego, Daniela Zárate wondered if the name of Africanized bees should be changed and said:

"While the term "Africanized" honey bee (AHB) has become commonplace, this epithet is perhaps due for revision. Africanized as a descriptor is frustratingly broad and fails to accurately reflect the diversity of geographic lineages that an admixed honey bee of the American continents can encompass. In addition, there exist more than a dozen African honey bee subspecies exhibiting a diverse ... (continue reading about 3 minutes)


THE ARGENTINE BEEKEEPER FACING THE RISK OF CONSUMING HIS CAPITAL

November 9th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, November 8th, 2022) The current political and economic crisis that the Argentine Republic is experiencing falls on the back of regional economies and beekeeping among them.

Adverse weather conditions for honey production until now in Argentina this year, the increase in the cost of living and inputs is added. During high profitable years producers improve their infrastructure and productive capacity. If they have a livestock farm they capitalize on cows, facilities, genetic improvement or more plots to increase production. In this market economy, who does not grow disappears. On the other hand, in bad years producers know that they have to sell part of their livetock, logically at lower prices than desired, to keep the wheel turning and to resist. They get rid of some heads and postpone projects.

The Argentine beekeeper has the same dynamic ... (continue reading about 4 minutes)


ALERT IN THE UNITED STATES FOR POSSIBLE FRAUDULENT HONEY

October 24th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, October 24th, 2022) After several months without news in the adulterated honey import alerts, published by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), honey shipments were interdicted on October 10 owned by a Mexican company.

These alerts for adulterated honey imply the detention of all the shipments of the intervened companies, without physical examination.

The previous event was published on June 14 adding a ... (continue reading about 3 minutes)


EPIDEMIOLOGICAL AND GENETIC STUDIES IN DRONE CONGREGATION AREAS

October 18th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, October 18th, 2022) During the next INNOVAR 2022 contest, organized by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of the Argentine Government, a group of researchers from CONICET belonging to the National University of Tucumán and sponsored by the Miguel Lillo Foundation they will present this weekend a particular bee health monitoring system with their work on epidemiological and genetic studies of Apis mellifera in Drone Congregation Areas.

Beyond the curiosity that may cause that theme in the varied public that will visit the exhibition at the Tecnópolis Center between October 20 and 22 the theme and the applied techniques ... (continue reading about 2 minutes)


CHILE LAUNCHES ITS BEEKEEPING PROMOTION LAW

October 15th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, October 13th, 2022) Signed by the President of the Republic, Gabriel Boric Font, and his Minister of Agriculture, Esteban Valenzuela van Treek, Chile has enacted Law No. 21,489 on "Protection and Promotion of Beekeeping". It is the first normative body of the activity in the brother country. The rule entered into force yesterday, after its publication in the Official Gazette of Chile.

It is noteworthy that despite the great experience on pollination of different crops ... (continue reading about 2 minutes)


HONEY MARKET

NEW HONEY HARVEST NEW PRICES 2022

October 8th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, October 8th, 2022) Starting this October, when the honey harvests end in the northern hemisphere, a new cycle begins in the honey market based on the different variables: harvest volume available, cost of money, global market perspective. This date is eagerly awaited by most Argentine exporters who have seen operations slow down due to anti-dumping sanctions in the United States and the enormous increase in freight rates in the last year.

According to the USDA Honey Report of September 2021, the average price of honey paid to Argentine honeys between January and August 2021 was US$ 3434 per ton. That price is the average of all the sales of the four categories (according to colour) US$ 105,107,442 and the 30,604,765 kg purchased.

The USDA Honey Report of September 2022 shows... (continue reading about 2 minutes)


BEE HEALTH ALERT

THE SMALL HIVE BEETLE IN SOUTH AMERICA

September 28th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, September 29th, 2022) The Small Hive Beetle (SHB) was detected for the first time in South America more than six years ago near Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Brazilian authority took more than a year to declare its presence before the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE, for its acronym in French). During the first years of "official" presence of the SHB in Brazil, beekeepers who apply the sanitary rifle (burn the hives with SHB) were financially compensated. But once the compensation was suspended, the control of the plague were abandoned and it spread at least to the west, arriving last year to cross the border and be detected in Paraguay. Recently it was also detected in... (continue reading about 2 minutes)


BEE HEALTH 2022-2023

THE VARROA HURTS WHEN THE NECTAR FLOW STARTS

September 28th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, September 26th, 2022) September is closed and we are already in full spring in the central area of the fertile plain of Argentina. Dry weather is good for brood development and the hives probably already have several brood combs, in principle very healthy. If an opportune sanitary treatments against Varroa were carried out in the fall, it is expected that these colonies will have a very low load of mites. However, given the economic situation of the beekeeping sector in Argentina, already since the last year, some producers ... (continue reading about 2 minutes)


September 7th, 2022

THE ISTANBUL APIMONDIA CONGRESS CONCLUDED

Finally, after the pandemic and Putin's invasion of Ukraine, the Apimondia Congress could be held last August in Istanbul. The congress itself, although light, had moments of exchange...continue reading

ESPACIO APICOLA MAGAZINE No. 136

We distributed the 136th hard edition of Espacio Apícola before traveling to Istanbul with new advances in the field of bee colony nutrition, the growing demand for...continue reading

CALL TO SOLIDARITY

The shed of Walter Alegre, a beekeeper in the Middle Valley of the Río Negro, Argentina, caught fire recently. He lost all the suppers, queen rearing material and the...continue reading

LAVALLE API-EXPO

This Friday and Saturday, September 9 and 10, respectively, the api-expo will take place in Lavalle, Mendoza province. The appointment is again at the Municipal Sports Center. We will have the opportunity...continue reading


High-end honey awards

July 5th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, July 5th, 2022) London Honey Awards ceremony will be held next Saturday, July 9th. This contest is oganized by George Kouvelis who also organizes a similar contest assessing olive oil quality every year.

George invites all interested parties to present their honeys in this contest every year whose purpose is to inform honey growers, honey producers, beekeepers, processors and retailers, who distribute their legally standardized products, to preserve and improve the quality of its brand product by promoting high quality honey.

Among the Platinum honeys, there are many samples of ... (continue reading about 3 minutes)


APIMONDIA 2022

SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM IS READY

June 30th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, June 30, 2022) July news-letter from Conmark was received today by email with the following Scientific Program of the next Apimondia Congress that will be held in Istanbul, Türkiye


HONEY WITH ANTIBIOTIC RESIDUES IMPORT ALERT

June 27th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, June 27th 2022) Antibiotics residues in honey are a symptom of a lack of Good Manufacturing Practices, which for our specific activity we call Good Beekeeping Practices.

The Food and Drug Administration of the United States (FDA) frequently publishes alerts of different irregular events in food imports, among them the appearance of prohibited antibiotics in honey, which constitutes a very important help to ... (continue reading about 3 minutes)


APIMONDIA 2022

Near 600 papers about beekeeping

June 18th, 2022



ANTI-DUMPING INVESTIGATION

USITC CONFIRMS THAT THE HONEY INDUSTRY IN THE USA WAS INJURED

June 6th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, June 6th, 2022) Last Friday, June 3rd, the United States International Trade Commission published in the Federal Register of the United States its Determination regarding the Investigation against alleged dumping of Raw Honey from Argentina, Brazil, India and Viet Nam, stating as follows: "On the basis of the record developed in the subject investigations, the United States International Trade Commission ("Commission") determines, pursuant to the Tariff Act of 1930 ("the Act"), that an industry by reason of imports of raw honey from Argentina, Brazil, India and Vietnam, provided for ... (continue reading about 2 minutes)


NEW VARIANT OF VIRUS IS MORE LETHAL TO HONEYBEES

June 3rd, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, June 3rd, 2022)A dangerous variant of the deformed wing virus (DWV) is on the rise worldwide. The virus infects honeybees, causing their wings to atrophy and the animals to die. The new variant, which has already replaced the original strain of the virus in Europe, is spreading to other regions of the world and causing entire bee colonies to collapse.

This has been shown in a study by an international research team led by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), which analysed data on the spread of virus variants over the past 20 years (See the map). The paper appeared in the International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife.

Deformed wing virus (DWV) is transmitted by... (continue reading about 2 minutes)


Istanbul and Turkish Bekeeping Information Regarding the Next Apimondia Congress

May 26th, 2022



BEES UNITE THE WORLD

May 2nd, 2022

(APIMONDIA PRESIDENT, May 2nd, 2022) These past two years of COVID have made it difficult to plan and carryout our 47 th biennial Apimondia Congress that was scheduled to be held in Ufa, Russia in September of 2021. Then came the invasion of sovereign Ukraine by Russian troops which caused us to cancel plans to meet in Ufa in 2022. As Apimondia, we work to be apolitical and follow UN guidelines to recognize countries and set our fees. We have major reasons that require us to meet and hold ... (continue reading about 2 minutes)


BEEKEEPERS IN CHILE ON ALERT AND MOBILIZATION

April 26th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, April 26, 2022) Beekeepers from southern Chile gathered around Mario Flores have begun the "National Beekeepers Union of Chile". Mario Flores is an internationally recognized queen bee breeder for his invention, in the 1990s, of the helical pollen trap. Currently his son, Mario Flores h., PhD student in Social Sciences at the University of La Plata, Argentina, is one of those who is in the assembly of this organization.

The trigger seems to be the bad honey harvests in recent seasons due to the drought and the consequent death of beehives. This would have exposed the insufficient income that beekeepers receive for the pollination services ... (continue reading about 2 minutes)


ANTI-DUMPING INVESTIGATION

THE DOC INCREASES THE PENALTY AGAINST ARGENTINE HONEY

April 9th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, April 9th, 2022) Finally, as planned, the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) published the respective Final Determinations of the anti-dumping investigation filed against honey from Argentina, Brazil, India and Vietnam yesterday.

The DOC, which had already suspended the anti-dumping investigation of Ukrainian honey for 90 days due to the Russian invasion, finally repealed it definitively (see previous note).

In the DOC Final Determination against Argentine honeys they were sanctioned with a higher percentage than in the Preliminary Determination, while the others received lesser penalties according to the following tables: ... (continue reading about 3 minutes)


ANTIDUMPING INVESTIGATION

LAWSUIT AGAINST UKRAINE HONEY WITHDRAWN

March 28th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, March 28th, 2022) In early March, the Ukrainian company TOV Agro East Trade Ukraine submitted a letter to the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) requesting that honey from Ukraine be excluded from the investigation for alleged dumping, due to the Russian invasion. The ITC immediately turned the document over to the Department of Commerce of the United States (DOC), in charge of the investigation, which on the same day suspended the proceedings on the lawsuit against honey from Ukraine for ninety days, as we reported on this page in a timely manner (read the note).

On March 24th, the petitioners submitted the following communication to Gina Raimondo, Secretary of the International Trade Administration (ITA) of the DOC and to Lisa Barton, Secretary of the ITC entitled: "Withdrawal of Petition and ... (continue reading about 2 minutes)


MACIA EXPO

BUSINESS MEETINGS
THE REGISTRATION DEADLINE WILL EXPIRE

March 18th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, March 18, 2022) Within the framework of the Maciá-Expo, organized by the government of Maciá city, Entre Ríos, Argentina, business meetings will be held between honey buyers from the United States, Germany, France, Spain and Paraguay with Argentine companies, cooperatives and so on.
The business meetings are scheduled for Saturday, March 26.
Registration is free for all those interested. This March 20th is the deadline for registration. Follow the enrollment instructions on this page.


APIMONDIA

THE 47TH CONGRESS EMIGRATED TO ISTANBUL

March 17th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, March 17, 2022) To the cry of "Bees Unite the World" and like a colony besieged by Varroa, the 47th Congress of Apimondia is NOT cancelled, organizers moved it to Istanbul.
In a brief email received earlier today, Burak Kaptan, PCO of Congress Conmark, in charge of the organization, notified us: "I kindly want to inform you that 47th Apimondia Congress will be organized in Istanbul between August 24-28, 2022.
We are looking forward to welcome you in Istanbul."


ANTIDUMPING INVESTIGATION

UKRAINE ASKS TO BE REMOVED FROM THE INVESTIGATION

March 11th, 2021

(Espacio Apícola, March 11th, 2022) At the request of two beekeeper associations, the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) initiated an investigation for alleged dumping of companies supplying honey from Argentina, Brazil , India, Ukraine and Vietnam (which account for about 90% of the honey that the United States imports...) on May 2021.

During the last 15 days, the DOC held "final" conversations on the Preliminary Determination of each country with the petitioners, except in the case of Vietnam, which has been long overdue. The DOC also had conversations by videoconference with... (continue reading about 3 minutes)


ARGENTINA

RENAPA UPDATE

March 9th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, March 9, 2022) At the request of Mr. Daniel Díaz, official of the Ministry of Agriculture of Córdoba province, we remind beekeepers from all over Argentina that they must update the information in the National Registry of Apicultural Producers (RENAPA) to be able to load in the system the labels that identify each drum of honey harvested.

The SENASA-enabled drum that you bought to package your harvest has a unique label issued by SENASA. After filling the drum, you must upload the label number in your self-management system on the website of the National Ministry of Agriculture so that you can sale the honey without problems.

When duly loaded into the system each label is a certificate of ownership so, it not only proves the origin of the honey (traceability) but also your proterty before the competent authority.

For this you must have updated your Registry in the Ministry of Agriculture. http://renapa.magyp.gob.ar/

It is a simple and brief process. If you are just starting as beekeeper, download the instructions from HERE to read it and look for the necessary documentation both to register or to update your registration.

¡Update it now ! and avoid delays or inconveniences for when you need to sell honey, move bee hives, products, etc.


APIMONDIA

RUSSIAN INVASION CONDEMN AND CANCELLATION OF THE 47TH CONGRESS

March 7th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, March 7, 2022) The International Beekeeping Federation APIMONDIA condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and canceled the holding of the 47th Congress in an extraordinary meeting of its executive committee. The 47th Congress of that entity was scheduled to take place in Ufa a Central-South city of the Eurasian country in the coming month of September.

The committee also confirms that the next 48th Apimondia Congress will be held in the city of Santiago de Chile next year 2023.-

(March 8th) Local organizers from Chile have reported that the 48th Apimondia Congress will be held at the Espacio Riesco Convention Center in the city of Santiago from September 4 to 8, 2023

Read the Apimondia statement here


APIMONDIA 2022

TIME TRIAL THEY LOOK FOR A NEW VENUE FOR THE APIMONDIA CONGRESS

February 25th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, February 25th, 2022) While we continue to receive expressions of concern and even rejection of the holding of the Apimondia Congress in Russia, based on our concern expressed yesterday, today we received a communication from the Project Manager of the Turkish Professional Organization of Congresses the company in charge of the Congress in Ufa, which says:

As the Apimondia Federation and the PCO of the Congress, we are working diligently to find a viable solution to the Apimondia Congress that was to take place in Ufa, Russia this September. We continue to meet with our Russian colleagues but the incursion into sovereign Ukraine by Russia has closed off the possibility that the meeting can take place as planned.

We are exploring many options for a 2022 Congress and will make a firm decision in the coming two weeks. We are optimistic that a Congress can still take place this year.


APIMONDIA UFA 2022

MUST IT BE CANCELED?

February 24th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, February 24th, 2022) Under the rule of shadows caused by Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, we have removed the announcement of the next Apimondia Congress Ufa 2022 in Russia from our website, waiting for the next events.

We would like the Russian Federation, through its legitimate institutions, to choose another model of greatness that truly confronts authoritarianism, they have the history and the power to do so.

We wish a prompt peaceful solution to visit Ufa, its people and its traditional beekeeping. Meanwhile, the next Apimondia Congress 2023 is scheduled in Santiago de Chile.-


HONEY MARKET 2022

A LONG TRIP TO MAY

February 15th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, February 15th, 2022) There is still a long way to May 23rd, if there are no further postponements, to know the decision of the United States International Trade Commission (US-ITC) on antidumping sanctions against honey from Argentina, Brazil, India, Ukraine and Vietnam. Perhaps in this image from wikipedia, market operators can find the answer they are looking for...

Unlike the previous investigation promoted against honey from Argentina and China in 2000, now there are five countries involved. The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) has used different criteria... (continue reading about 3 minutes)


HONEY MARKET 2022

NEGOTIATING A BASE PRICE OF ARGENTINE HONEY

January 18th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, January 18th, 2022) The agreements for signing new honey supply contracts are delayed throughout the world pending a better idea on the final resolution of the dumping investigation promoted in the United States against its main honey suppliers: Argentina, India, Vietnam, Brazil and Ukraine.

Argentine honey exporters are in contact with their clients trying to agree on prices. Today, more than ever, since the beginning of the investigation in the United States, European buyers have been served on a platter... (continue reading about 4 minutes)


EXTREME HEAT ALERT

What was given is over?

January 7th, 2022

(Espacio Apícola, January 7th, 2022) Forecast teperatures of all climate models are predicting above 36ºC from La Pampa and Buenos Aires to Salta and Formosa, in Argentina.

Events of small swarms and beehives melting due to heat and lack of water are present.

From Entre Ríos, a province also affected by fires, Mss Gloria Fabre, from Apiarios Fanoni, recommends that we replace the use of the smoker with a water sprinkler.

Given the drought and high temperatures prevailing, the apiaries must have an abundant supply of water within a radius of less than 500m, preferably less than 300m.

The small collonies and beehives with few bees and free spaces (without completing the respective frames) are the most susceptible to collapse. On the edges of the beehives and nuclei only the black wax frames resist.

Extreme temperature conditions without rains are expected for the next 10 days and a drought is expected at least until March, which has reduced expectations for the honey harvest in the main Argentine honey region. In areas where there is no water reserve in the soil and without rains, what was given was over, at least until March.

Photo: video capture in Santiago del Estero, the honey drains from a nucleus, already without bees and without one of the 4 corresponding frames.

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