NATURAL HONEY MARKET

Background. Ukraine is one of the five largest producers and exporters of honey in the world.The problem of falsification of natural bee honey is urgent, which threatens the reputation of domestic products and can lead to a decrease in sales and may cause an export restrictions. The aim of the article is to analyze the current state, problems and prospects of development of the domestic market of bee honey. Materials and methods. Analysis, synthesis, statistical methods for assessing the dyna­mics and structure, scientific generalization and comparison of data from scientific sources. Results. The article analyzes the current state of the natural honey market in Ukraine, analyzes the dynamics of its production, quantity and structure of exports and imports. It is established that the production of natural honey in Ukraine has an unstable dynamics, while the quantity of exports of this product from Ukraine over the past 7 years has increased more than 5 times. Imports of honey to Ukraine are insignificant. The re­quirements to natural honey in Ukraine and the EU and the problems faced by domestic honey exporters are analyzed. It is established that the requirements for the quality of natural honey in the EU are high, these requirements have been implemented in Ukrai­nian legislation since 2019 and by 2023 will be mandatory for all market operators in Ukraine. The most common types of honey falsification in the domestic and world markets are described. It has been established that such methods of natural honey falsification as feeding bees with various preparations and syrups, forgery of parameters and characteristics of honey, admixture or complete replacement of natural honey with sugar syrups, etc. Conclusion. The Ukrainian honey market is one of the most promising and export-capable. However, it is characterized by a large number of problems that inhibit its development and require urgent solution. Further research in this area may be aimed at developing public policy measures to support the beekeeping industry and prevent honey counterfeiting.