New USA Tariffs on Canadian Honey

Oh No! Here we go again. The American government placed a 50% tariff on Canadian honey on August 21. This tariff will have an impact on all Canadian honey producers. You can read a statement from the Canadian Honey Council here Honey Tariff Information – Statement from the Canadian Honey Council – Canadian Honey Council

What does this mean for our American customers?

Wendell Estate has suspended shipping of our honey to the US until this tariff is removed.  This tariff means that US market is not now available for Canadian honey.  Our American customers will be able to purchase their Wendell Estate Honey at stores across the U.S. Store Locator – USA | Wendell Estate Honey as long as supplies at our distributors last.  We are hoping the tariffs are lifted long before our distributors run out of our honey. We will resume shipping to the U.S. through our online store as soon as the tariffs are dropped.

What does this mean for American honey consumers in general?

Canada, through the CFIA, has strict regulations for producing and packaging honey, making Canadian honey a product with integrity.  In this world of engineered, fake and adulterated food one would think it would make sense to know where your honey comes from. 

These tariffs will not only make Canadian brands of honey scarce and/or expensive on supermarket shelves, American retail honey brands will also be affected. Many common American retail honey is a blend of honey from various countries. Large brands import honey of questionable authenticity cheaply from countries such as India, Brazil and Vietnam. This low-grade (and possibly adulterated or straight-out fake honey) is then blended with pricier, high quality, authentic honey from USA and Canada. A greatly increased cost of importing authentic Canadian honey to improve the overall quality of “American” brands of blended honeys will likely result in a higher proportion of honey of questionable authenticity in each jar.

What does this mean for American honey producers?

It’s reasonable to assume that tariffs on imported honey could benefit domestic American honey producers. However, in this report from the Canadian Cattlemen, the former President of the American Honey Producers Association, Chris Hiatt said that they didn’t lobby for tariffs on Canadian honey because they’re not concerned about honey coming in from Canada. American honey producers are concerned about “massive volumes of honey from Brazil, India and Argentina, along with fake honey from multiple origins.” The Canadian honey tariff is not expected to have a noticeable effect on American beekeepers or the price American honey producers receive.

What does this mean for our honey farm?

We are not too sure yet but here are some facts.  Over the past few years we have been selling about 12% of our bulk honey production into the U.S.  In 2025 Canada exported 25% of it’s total honey production for the year with 14% of the total Canadian honey production for that year going to the US.  (The vast majority of Canadian export honey is in the form of bulk honey to packaging brands) You can find the production, import and export figures for Canadian honey on the Agriculture Canada website. Statistical overview of the Canadian honey and bee industry, 2025 – agriculture.canada.ca

With these facts in mind we believe that we can weather this trade storm by:

1.  Encouraging Canadians to buy Canadian honey.  Support a Canadian industry.  Have a healthy sweet.  Taste a delicious prairie summer.

2.  Like most Canadian export businesses facing unpredictable and dramatic instability exporting to the USA, Wendell Estate Honey has been seeking new markets for the 12% of our honey that will need to find a new “home”.  We export to several countries where we will continue to try to increase our market share.  Our latest retailer is a gorgeous online store, Elevare, in Qatar!

We apologize to our customers in the U.S. We hope to resume shipping soon! We’ll notify our newsletter subscribers as soon as we can ship to the U.S. again. If you’re not signed up for our newsletter, you can sign up here and also enjoy 5% off your next order.