A Short Tallow Year — ABJ on Honey Prices and Tariffs

The October American Bee Journal has a short market piece from Steven Coy, president of the American Honey Producers Association, and one line in it landed close to home: the Chinese tallow flow along the Gulf Coast came in short this year. That’s our flow. When the tallow trees bloom around Pearland and across Brazoria County, that’s a big part of what fills the supers, so a short tallow year shows up in every backyard yard down here, not just the big outfits.

Coy says prices for local and regional honey have already gone up because of it, and he expects more upward pressure as buyers try to lock up supply before the limited crop runs out. On top of that, imported honey is getting more expensive. Honey has been added to the federal Section 301 tariffs, stacked on the antidumping orders already in place on honey from Argentina, Brazil, India, and Vietnam. He puts the combined duties at roughly 16 to 23 percent. He also notes Argentine honey has climbed to nearly $2.20 a pound for U.S. packers as Argentina sells more into Europe.

His bottom line for producers is to expect packers to pay a little more this season, but to be ready for prices that swing around, both for domestic and imported honey. The piece was written in August, so it’s a snapshot, not a forecast set in stone.

For a backyard beekeeper, I take two things from it. First, a short flow means some colonies went into fall lighter than we’d like, so this is the month to heft the boxes and not take more honey than the bees can spare. A few extra pounds sold aren’t worth a colony that runs out of stores in a cold snap. Second, if you sell a few jars at the farmers market or to the neighbors, local honey is worth what it costs to make. A short crop is a fair reason to hold your price, not to undercut the next table over.

Read it from the source: Tariffs Take Hold as the 2026 Honey Crop Comes Up Short (American Bee Journal Newsnotes, October 2026).

Back in the yard: month-by-month work and the rest of the journal.