September is National Honey Month; U.S. gets a large portion of its honey from imports

September is National Honey Month—a time to celebrate honey-making in the U.S.—but a large portion of American honey comes from imports, especially over the past few years when honeybee deaths and severe drought in the South and West severely reduced supplies. An estimated 115,000 to 125,000 beekeepers live in the U.S., and production from U.S. beekeepers with five or more colonies totals 149 million pounds in 2013, up 5 percent from 2012, says the National Honey Board. But Americans consume far more than that. U.S. consumption totaled 410 million pounds in 2010.

One problem is in California, where drought has knocked The Golden State from the country's top honey producer to fourth, Anna Christiansen reports for PBS. In 2010, California produced 27.5 million pounds of honey, compared to only 10.9 million pounds in 2013. This year's numbers are expected to be even worse.

Drought and the decline in honeybee populations have "pushed prices to unprecedented highs," Christiansen writes. "According to the National Honey Board, retail price for the sticky sweet natural product has increased by 65 percent over the past 8 years." That also forced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to issue honey guidelines earlier this year, barring manufacturers from adding other substances (like corn syrup) that would save them money.

While California struggles to produce honey, North Dakota has become the nation's top producing state, says the National Honey Board. In 2013 North Dakota produced 33,120,000 pounds of honey valued at $67,565,500. Montana was second, producing 14,946,000 pounds of honey, and Florida was fourth, producing 13,420,000 pounds of honey.

"The drop in U.S. production, coupled with high domestic honey prices, increased honey imports to 288.3 million pounds in 2011, twice the amount imported a decade ago in 2001," writes Big Picture Agriculture. "The top three foreign suppliers of natural honey to the United States—Argentina, Vietnam and India—accounted for two-thirds of total U.S. imported honey in 2011."

The U.S. imported 44,239 metric tons (one metric ton is about 2,200 pounds) of honey from Argentina in 2013, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The U.S. also imported 33,586 metric tons from Vietnam, 25,867 metric tons from India and 11,677 metric tons from Brazil. Other imports came from Canada, Uruguay, Mexico, Ukraine, Turkey, Taiwan, Dominican Republic, New Zealand, Chile and Thailand. (Big Picture Agriculture graphic)