The US honey industry is in a bit of a sticky spot
Production is stalling as bee colony losses mount, per the USDA, but demand for honey just keeps on rising.
Whether you’ve sampled one of the many newly available “swicy” offerings at major fast-food chains, or just mixed some of the sweet stuff into your daily raw milk shot, it feels like honey is everywhere in the US these days. And, as detailed in a recent Bloomberg article, it seems Americans still can’t get enough of it.
According to retail data from Circana cited in the piece, Americans bought $1.6 billion worth of honey in the 12 months through March 2026, up 10% from the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, the USDA’s National Honey Report, updated last Wednesday, revealed that US adults consumed ~1.9 pounds of honey per capita in 2025, which is only slightly less than the record-high 2 pounds seen the year before.
Even as the buzz around bee nectar continues to build — for any variety of health-adjacent, environmental, or political reasons — USDA figures going back to 1987 show that honey production in the US slumped to an all-time low of ~116 million pounds last year, down 14% from the year prior.
Mounting demand sent the average price of honey up to a sky-high ~$3.05 per pound in 2025, marking a 70% increase in the space of two decades, and the US has become increasingly reliant on foreign imports to keep up. The report detailed honey imports hovering around peak levels, with India (which provided ~193 million pounds of US honey imports in 2025), Argentina (~121 million), and Brazil (~64 million) highlighted as top suppliers.
Hive mind
It might not come as a surprise to apiarists, or some “Bee Movie” fans, that a decline in bee colonies is a major reason for the production slump.
The USDA documented approximately 2.41 million honey-producing colonies in the US in 2025, which yielded only 48 pounds of honey per colony (down 7% year on year). Bloomberg noted that more than 60% of honeybee colonies in the US were lost in the six months to January 2025, the largest seasonal die-off ever recorded, after being infected by pesticide-resistant parasitic mites.
Beyond colony losses, producing honey in the US just isn’t that lucrative anymore: the USDA’s March release indicated that honey and other non-pollination business made up ~18% of bee producers’ income last year, as America’s beekeepers use their swarms to pollinate more profitable plants.
