Having forayed into several non-dairy branded food segments of edible oils, ready-to-eat snacks, bakery products and chocolates, dairy major Amul has brought its own branded honey in the market. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Tuesday launched ‘Amul Honey’ in the presence of Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of State for Agriculture Shobha Karandlaje and Union Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhary. Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Aggarwal and additional secretaryDr Abhilaksh Likhi, were also present.

Tomar said that with the advent of ‘Amul honey’ now in the market, the cooperative sector will be further strengthened.

 “Better marketing of honey will result in better honey prices to the honey producing farmers.  Improvement in the quality and branding of honey will result in an increase in exports and increase the contribution of the agriculture sector to the foreign exchange reserves,” he added.

Honey production in India has increased from 76,150 metric tons in 2013-14 to 1,25,000 MT in 2020-21.The export of honey in India increased from 28378.42 MT in the year 2013-14 to 59,999 MT in the year 2020-21.

According to the agriculture ministry, at least100 Farmer Producer Organizations(FPO) of honey producing farmers are being formed by the ‘National Bee Board’ in selected areas across the country under the ‘ National Beekeeping & Honey Mission.  Rupala said honey testing laboratory has been set up in Gujarat for testing quality of honey and other related works under the ‘National Mission on Beekeeping and Honey’.  Apart from this honey testing laboratories are also being established in Delhi and Bangalore. As role models for bee keeping 16 Integrated Beekeeping Development Centers have been started in different states.

Global market size of natural honey is US$ 8.4 billion and it projected to reach US$ 10.3 billion by 2025.  Globally 1,779.6 metric tons of honey is produced. China produces almost 28% of world’s honey, followed by Turkey (5.9%), Iran (4.5%) and US (4.1%). with the production of 63,700 metric tons of honey in 2020,  India is the 6th largest producer of honey, accounting for 3.5% of global production. The per capita honey consumption in India is as low as 50 grams per year; globally, it ranges from 250-300 gms.