Brazilian Honeys Exports - Update

Since March 2006, brazilian exporters of honey are not allowed to ship to EU in accordance to the FVO ? Food and Veterinary Office Commision Decision 2004/432/EC review. In 2003, FVO inspectors were sent to Brazil in order to evaluate the country´s antibiotics residues control system of certain products including honey. The conclusion was the country´s authorities had no control in place, what is still true once the Agriculture Ministery requests samples of honeys that are exported and performs few tests that are not in accordance to the rules issued by FVO. An inspection report was then issued with clear instructions on how the brazilian Government should proceed in order to comply to the FVO´s requirements. Despite brazilian honeys have no history of antibiotic traces since 2001 when the country started exporting honeys, the FVO decided to prohibit them to enter into EU territory because the Brazilian Government simply ignored the FVO´s demands. The private sector noticed the problem only few weeks before the prohibition became effective, in February 2006. Since then, the beekeepers associations as well as the exporters joined efforts in order to discuss the problem with the Agriculture Ministery officials and some recent talks indicated there is a possibility to present an acceptable program within few months. Once FVO board meets twice a year (March and September) , there is a chance the brazilian government can present a plan in time for the next meeting in September, what would make possible a lift on the ban in October or November. This is the most optimistic vision for the case. In our opinion, brazilian honeys are more likely to be back to EU in 2007 though, probably in April or May. Since March 17th all the brazilian honey has been exported only to USA. Combined to the exchange rate value the argentine prices have been leading the track of brazilian honey prices. Brazilian crops in the Northeast which started in March were good due to reasonable weather conditions and some sizeable amount of product may be still available for August and September shipments, exporters don´t want to fix prices for such period though. Orange blossom crop in the state of Sao Paulo (Sep-Nov) is already grabbing the attention of some buyers once the US possible output seems not so good as expected in Florida and California. The types of honeys which are not easily tradeable in USA (eucalyptus, bracatinga honeydew, dark amber and amber polyfloras) are the ones which are most suffering the embargo. Demand for organic honeys had a pick in the first quarter of the year, more orders are expected to come in October-November as happened last year.

Total honey exports in 2006 (jan-apr) : USD 6.627.764 MT: 4.159.749
Average Price (FOB) : USD 1593/MT