Made in Italy

Honey: bees are also suffering from the heat. Imports have risen by 18 per cent and beekeepers are calling on the CAP for help

The harvest was poor in the driest areas, with yields down by as much as 50 per cent. In Italia, 31,000 tonnes were produced, compared with a shortfall of 26,000 tonnes.

by Alessio Romeo

7 September 2026

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4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Italian honey production is also bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. Not everywhere to the same extent, however, as the season now drawing to a close has been better in the mountains but extremely difficult in the lowlands and in the warmer regions, such as Sicily and Sardinia. According to the National Honey Observatory, the initial assessment for 2026 paints a picture of a year with no uniform trend: in some areas, yields were good or very good, whilst in neighbouring areas yields were modest or even non-existent, with significant differences not only between regions but also between neighbouring apiaries, depending on altitude, aspect, varroa (a bee disease), water availability and the timing of hive relocations.

The associations: support for the CAP

Just in the last few days, the main industry associations (Fai, Mic and Unaapi) have written to Masaf to request specific support relating to beekeepers’ incomes under the new Common Agricultural Policy , highlighting a crisis linked to ‘factors unrelated to the beekeeper’s technical and entrepreneurial capabilities’ and a fall in revenue of between 25 and 50 per cent.

And yet the season had started well, with mild spring temperatures that were favourable to the development of the colonies and brought forward the flowering season. But beekeeping, a litmus test of environmental health, was bound to suffer from the subsequent temperature swings, storms and prolonged heatwaves that rapidly dried out the soil and shortened the flowering period, reducing the availability of nectar for bees in many parts of the country.

The bright spot in a situation that has seen some production come to a complete standstill was the overall recovery in acacia honey production, a crucial product for business profitability; However, uncertainty remains regarding the market’s reaction and whether prices will hold up, in a context still characterised – as the Observatory points out – by the presence of stock-on-hand from the previous season.

Imports on the rise

The only certainty, however, concerns the rise in imports, which are set to increase by 18 per cent in 2025 to over 26,000 tonnes, more than a quarter of which will come from outside the EU, compared with domestic production of around 31,000 tonnes and stable consumption at around half a kilo per person per year, below the European average of 600 grams. This increase is likely, in the long term, to fill the gap left on the shelves by domestic producers facing difficulties. Meanwhile, paradoxically, the honey packagers’ sector of the Unione Italiana Food – which last year recorded a 4 per cent increase in turnover to 175 million euros – is reporting supply difficulties.

Fragmentation and the climate crisis

Beekeeping, explains Stefano Masini, Coldiretti’s Head of the Environment , ‘is a complex sector because it involves the rearing of nomadic animals in the open air, and is therefore more exposed to the effects of the climate, but at the same time plays a positive role as a pollinator for our extraordinary crops. It is an issue that must be understood in all its complexity: producing honey is not merely a profession; of the 80,000 beekeepers in Italia, only one in three is a professional farmer. This results in a lower propensity for business investment in technology and less attention paid to many aspects relating to safety, as evidenced by the spread of the Varroa mite in the 1980s.”

Now the climate crisis, Masini adds, “not only risks causing damage to production but is also becoming a factor in the spread of diseases. As in other sectors, we are witnessing the spread of diseases that did not previously affect our crops but now make them vulnerable: pests, bacteria and viruses. Bees swarm, and this facilitates the spread of diseases. Therefore, beehives require increasingly careful monitoring and expertise that must be recognised among beekeepers. To get to the heart of the matter: we need a single European register and data system, like the one we have in Italia.

Fraud warning

Finally, there is the issue of fraud: ‘Honey has value; it is a profitable product and becomes an opportunity for undue enrichment through the use of syrups or sugary substances to increase the volume of the mixture, thereby adulterating the product. This – concludes Masini – is also linked to the lack of official analytical methods; it is not easy, despite our best efforts. Take, for example, a practice that does not originate as fraud but as a method of processing the product: if I heat the honey, I alter its natural characteristics; if heated incorrectly, for too long or at too high a temperature, certain enzymes and nutritional properties are destroyed; a protocol should be established to distinguish between the different types of honey’.

Acacia, eucalyptus, wildflower, lime, rhododendron, chestnut, citrus, woodland and high-mountain honeys… Italia stands out for the extraordinary biodiversity of its honeys, with over 60 varieties, ranging from PDO honeys such as Miele della Lunigiana, Miele delle Dolomiti Bellunesi and Miele Varesino, to honeys aged in barriques or flavoured varieties.