People in the US are eating more honey than ever.
The country's bees can barely supply any of it. So the US is buying record amounts from other lands to fill the gap.
In the year ending April 2025, US bee keepers lost more than half of their hives. That's the highest die-off rate on record.
USDA experts traced it to two things at once. A bug called the varroa mite spread viruses to bees, while the bug stopped dying from amitraz, the last drug bee keepers used to fight it.
In plain English: the bug is winning. The drug doesn't work.
US honey output has fallen to its lowest point in 30 years. Since 2000, almost 40% of US output has gone.
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People want more honey, not less.
US honey use has climbed to 550 million pounds a year. The shift to "clean eating" away from corn syrup helped drive it.
Prices are up about 30% in the past five or six years. The math doesn't work for US supply.
So imports are filling almost all of the gap. Four lands supply about 79% of US honey imports:
Honey is now an import good, like coffee and bananas. The US is the world's top honey buyer.
This story has more market angles than it looks. Almonds, blueberries, and apples need bees to grow.
If bee keepers can't keep hives alive, food brands pay more for things like cereal and ice cream. Many of those brands trade on US stock markets.
Duties on imported honey have been rising too. The Commerce Department lifted duties on honey from Argentina from 16.9% to 58.34% last year.
Duties on top Vietnam sellers now run as high as 154%. So imported honey is getting pricier as US supply is shrinking.
Price pressure is coming from both sides. That's the kind of supply story that quietly pushes grocery inflation higher.
USDA-backed work on new mite drugs is the thing to track. If a swap for amitraz works, US hive losses could ease.
If it doesn't, the "honey gap" gets wider. Bee deaths could also push up costs for big crops like almonds. Most US almond growers rent hives to grow the nuts.
That cost flows through to brands that sell almonds, almond milk, and snack bars on store shelves across the US.
Either way, the next time honey shows up on a grocery shelf, it has likely been on a plane.
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