Beekeepers warn of 'honey laundering'

Beekeepers fear "honey laundering" - allowing in inferior or diseased honey from around the world - may jeopardise their industry if new rules allow honey into New Zealand through Australia.

At present, no overseas honey is allowed into New Zealand, but the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry is close to a decision expected to allow Australian honey imports.

Wellington Beekeepers Association spokesman John Burnet said, if Australian honey import rules were relaxed, new diseases could be introduced by "honey laundering".

"It's a term that's been coined to cover the practice of the Australians, in particular, importing honey from countries like Argentina and China where they have very low disease- control standards.

"The honey is very cheap and often relabelled as Australian honey and then exported."

In 2008, a Sydney court fined two people A$586,000 after they were convicted of importing A$6.5m of Chinese honey and illegally exporting it to the United States, relabelled as "Australian made".

"There's pretty unscrupulous people who'd do anything to make a buck and if New Zealand lowers its barrier, there's a risk that diseases could come in," Mr Burnet said.

"The Government is saying we have adequate protection, adequate controls. There is no risk of disease coming in, our boys will pick it up at the border, and we are saying, 'yeah right, like they've done with varroa mite'."

Varroa mite is an eastern Asian parasite that has killed large numbers of New Zealand's managed and feral bee population. For food safety, honey must meet requirements set by Food Standards Australia New Zealand, a bi- national agency that does not require country-of-origin labelling.

Codes regulate for purity of honey but Wellington beekeeper Frank Lindsay said laundered honey could still meet the standard by using lesser sugars. "Well, rice sugars are very close to natural sugars so they use that and put some enzymes in and it comes out looking like honey. It doesn't happen here but it certainly happens in China," he said.

In 1997, Chinese hives that were hit by a bacterial epidemic were treated with chloramphenicol, a toxic antibiotic used to fight life-threatening infections in humans that has been linked with a low incidence of serious and sometimes fatal blood disorders.

And the United States Food and Drug Administration recently posted the following import alert: "Chloramphenicol has been found in honey from China by Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union and Japan."

In 2008, the Government called for an independent review on risks associated with imports from Australia. That review highlighted four organisms: Nosema ceranae; Paenibacillus alvei; European Foulbrood; and Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus. The first two organisms have been found to already exist in New Zealand, the third is deemed of minimal risk because it is heat-treatable. According to ministry policy analyst Paul Bolger, an analysis for the fourth, Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus, will be completed soon. If the Israeli virus is here, there could be no reason to restrict free trade.