Americans consume more honey than anyone else in the world, nearly 400 million pounds every year. About half of that is used by food companies in cereals, bread, cookies, and all sorts of other processed food. Some 60 percent of the honey is imported from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and other trading partners. Almost none comes from China. After U.S. beekeepers accused Chinese companies of selling their honey at artificially low prices, the government imposed import duties in 2001 that as much as tripled the price of Chinese honey. Since then, little enters from China legally.
There is a German Company called ALW (named after its founder Alfred L. Wolff Company) and it imports honey from around the world and sells it to other companies here in the USA for manufacturing. The scam is in the buying of honey that originates in China and importing it to India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, Mongolia, and South Korea and then filtering it and relabeling it from Chinese honey as the country of Origin to one of the ones I just named. I am so glad that US Customs agents were on their J O B and got suspicious about six shipping containers that were destined for ALW customers and that arrived from China but were labeled Korean White Honey. And they alerted authorities of the deception. And that is what sparked this investigation back 2006. Yeah! Personally, I don't think I want to consume honey that comes fro China. Honey is partially digested plant nectar that is regurgitated from Bees and Bees use it as a food source in the winter when other food sources are low. I once saw a news story that incorrectly stated that honey is Bee saliva, well that's not 100% true. hahahahaha Anyway, a couple of Jr Executives at ALW and the CEO of ALW along with a Chinese honey broker have been indicted in this case which is an $80 million dollar food fraud case according to Assistant US Attorney Andrew Boutros in Chicago. This is the largest food fraud case in US History, to date.
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