WESTERN PRODUCER — A key claim in the Canadian Beekeepers Federation’s open letter demanding federal action on U.S. honey tariffs is being disputed by leaders of the country’s other major beekeeping organization.
The Aug. 13 letter, addressed to the federal government, warns that a 50 per cent U.S. tariff on Canadian honey threatens to collapse prices and cripple an industry that also underpins pollination services worth billions of dollars annually.
The tariff came into effect just after midnight on Aug. 22, and is imposed on dairy, honey and alcohol, among other Canadian products.
Early in the letter, the federation stated that “the country’s largest honey packer has cancelled producer contracts because its American sales are gone.”
That sentence has proven difficult to substantiate.
Claim points to an unnamed packer
CBF director Peter Awram declined to name the packer.
“It’s not hard to figure out who that is, but I think that needs to come directly from them,” he said.
Executive director Connie Phillips also declined to name the company referred to in the letter, instead describing honey sales as moving through “a myriad of channels.”
Asked which packers she had in mind more broadly, Phillips said she believes the two largest packers in Canada are Odem International and BeeMaid.
“I’m not entirely 100 per cent confident of all the different packers that we have in Canada,” she said, adding that both companies sell into the U.S. market.
Neither company confirmed the letter’s claim.
Phillippe Shebib, director of Odem International, said the company is not a honey packer and not aware of the situation.
BeeMaid declined to comment for the record.
Industry leaders dispute the claim
The Canadian Honey Council, a separate national industry body, offered a more direct rebuttal.
Rod Scarlett, the council’s executive director, said he had not heard of any cancelled contracts, and if any occurred, he doubted they were tariff-related.
Instead, he suggested that any cancellations more likely stemmed from delivery issues or a late honey flow.
He also disputed the letter’s underlying premise that American buyers have stopped purchasing.
“I will absolutely guarantee you that the amount of honey shipped this month to the U. S. is going to be substantially higher than average,” Scarlett said.
Jake Berg, chair of the Canadian Honey Council, said he isn’t aware of which honey packer the CBF was referencing.
“I haven’t heard of any packer cancelling contracts, and I haven’t heard of any beekeepers having contracts cancelled,” Berg said.
Kevin Nixon, a director with the Alberta Beekeepers Commission, also is not aware of any Alberta producers having contracts cancelled either.
Only confirmed case involves a U.S. buyer
The closest thing to a documented cancellation traces back to Paul Gregory, vice-chair of the Manitoba Beekeepers Association.
He and four other producers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan had their membership cancelled by Sue Bee, a major American honey co-operative.
“We’ve had our American co-op cancel us, and so now most of us have joined a Canadian co-op,” Gregory said.
He believes the timing appeared to be financial rather than tariff-driven: Sue Bee’s board, he said, may have determined it was paying Canadian members more than it could get on the open market.
Chris Bartell, a beekeeper near Oak Bank, Man., backed up Gregory’s story about Sue Bee cancelling Canadian beekeeper contracts.
“There were a number of large beekeepers that were contracted to a U. S. packer, and because that U. S. packer decided they didn’t want Canadian members … they said Canadian members were no longer welcome, so those Canadian members had their contracts cancelled,” he said, adding that that decision had “nothing to do with the tariffs.”
Dispute extends beyond cancelled contracts
Simon Lalonde, president of the Saskatchewan Beekeepers Development Commission, offered a broader read on the letter’s purpose.
He pointed to the CBF’s long-standing push to have Canada open its border to package bees from the continental U. S., a request repeated in the Aug. 13 letter itself, and suggested the tariff response may be tied to that effort.
“It’s been a bit of an ongoing battle,” Lalonde said, adding that Canada’s border has been closed to such imports for biosecurity reasons, given higher rates of pests and disease resistance in U.S. bee stock.
“I think this is kind of the current tactic to try and do that,” he said, adding he was puzzled the CBF would attach an unverified claim to the letter.
“I can’t understand why [CBF] wouldn’t back up any of the statements in there.”
CBF stands by broader version of claim
In a follow-up written exchange, Phillips said the CBF was willing to clarify the wording of their claim.
She maintained that a broader pattern of cancellations occurred, separate from the Sue Bee case: she said producers began receiving calls on July 29 informing them their contracts would not be renewed, calls she said did not come from Sue Bee.
Phillips went on to say the reasons given to producers didn’t hold up to scrutiny and that nothing had changed since the contracts were signed except the tariff. She said the cancellations were conveyed verbally, with nothing in writing.
The CBF has spoken directly with producers affected by those calls, Phillips said, noting that none would go on the record for fear of jeopardizing their remaining buyer relationships.
The Western Producer was not able to independently identify or reach a producer affected by the July 29 calls Phillips described, and the CBF did not provide a company name, or affected-producer count.
Sue Bee did not respond to The Western Producer’s request for comment.
About the author
Reporter
Miranda Leybourne is a Glacier FarmMedia reporter based in Neepawa, Manitoba with eight years of journalism experience, specializing in agricultural reporting. Born in northern Ontario and raised in northern Manitoba, she brings a deep, personal understanding of rural life to her storytelling.
A graduate of Assiniboine College’s media production program, Miranda began her journalism career in 2007 as the agriculture reporter at 730 CKDM in Dauphin. After taking time off to raise her two children, she returned to the newsroom once they were in full-time elementary school. From June 2022 to May 2024, she covered the ag sector for the Brandon Sun before joining Glacier FarmMedia. Miranda has a strong interest in organic and regenerative agriculture and is passionate about reporting on sustainable farming practices. You can reach Miranda at mleybourne@farmmedia.com.
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