Honey: Background for 1990 Farm Legislation

The U.S. Government has supported the price of honey since 1950 by providing market price stability to honey producers to encourage them to maintain sufficient honeybee populations to pollinate important agricultural crops. When honey support prices moved above the average domestic price in the early 1980's, domestic producers began to find it profitable to forfeit their honey to the Government. Packers and food manufacturers found it economical to import lower priced honey for domestic use. However, changes made to the honey program by the Food Security Act of 1985 have reduced forfeitures of honey to the Government and made domestic honey competitive with imports. Government expenditures to operate the honey price support program totaled $525.6 million for fiscal years 1980-88. As of May 3, 1989, over 520 million pounds of the 1980-88 honey crops were forfeited to the Government under the loan program. Most of the forfeited honey has been disposed of through various Federal food distribution programs