Korea's beekeeping industry gets stung by climate change, imports and labeling confusion

GIMJE, North Jeolla — Korea’s beekeeping industry faces mounting pressure from mass honeybee deaths, cheap imports and controversy over sugar-fed honey, as beekeepers warn that climate change, pesticides and loose labeling rules have weakened hives and eroded consumer trust.

Inside a pine forest apiary in Gimje, North Jeolla, thousands of honeybees swarmed as workers opened the lid of a hive on May 1.

“This is the kind of hive you need to harvest honey,” said Kim Jong-hwa, senior vice chairman of the Korea Beekeepers Association (KBA), as he lifted a honeycomb frame from inside the hive.

Kim, 65, has worked in beekeeping for 48 years. A two-story hive typically contains 14 to 15 honeycomb frames and houses between 50,000 and 70,000 bees. Kim currently manages 220 hives across two apiaries in Yongji myeon, Gimje. He had started preparing to move the hives in search of flowering trees and flowers.

Following the bloom 

“We move every week during the black locust flowering season, traveling from Jeonju to Yeongdong in North Chungcheong and then to Jangsu in North Jeolla to collect honey,” Kim said.

Afterward, he moves the hives to areas with wildflowers and blooming trees such as snowbell and lacquer trees. He finishes collecting honey by late June before chestnut flowers disappear and the rainy season begins.

When temperatures and weather conditions align, bees can fill a single honeycomb frame within two or three days. But even when flowers bloom fully, bees sometimes produce little honey if temperatures remain unsuitable.

That explains why honey yields vary sharply, from two to 20 bottles per hive. Each bottle weighs 2.4 kilograms (5.3 pounds). Hive prices also fluctuate widely by season, ranging from 120,000 won ($80) to 400,000 won.

“Beekeeping survives on just one or two months of harvesting during May and June,” Kim said.

North Jeolla had 1,932 beekeeping farms and 256,000 hives as of March, accounting for 10.6 percent of the country's total 2.418 million hives, according to the provincial government.

Bee deaths and shrinking habitats 

However, honeybee deaths have troubled beekeepers nationwide for years.

North Jeolla surveyed 1,221 beekeeping farms during the wintering season between November 2024 and February 2025 and found that 33,000 of 223,000 hives, or 15 percent, suffered damage.

Provincial officials cited cold weather in late February and early March as the main cause. Low temperatures delayed bee growth. 

Winter loss rates in North Jeolla fell steadily from 49 percent in 2022 to 2023 to 27 percent in 2023 to 2024 and 22 percent in 2024 to 2025. But many beekeepers say they still face a deepening crisis.

Climate change has disrupted bee populations in several ways. Cold winters interrupt egg-laying by queen bees while low spring temperatures slow growth. Diseases such as parasitic mites and pesticides sprayed in orchards also threaten bee survival.

Fruit trees such as pears and apples depend on honeybees for pollination. But the growing use of drones to spray pesticides in orchards has also contaminated nearby flowers and plants that bees rely on for nectar.

“When bees bring pesticide-contaminated pollen back to the hive, the entire hive, including larvae, can collapse,” Kim said.

Despite growing concerns about disappearing bees, the number of managed bee colonies in Korea has actually increased over the past decade.

The KBA reported that hive numbers rose from 1.95 million in 2014 to 2.58 million in 2023.

“Forests and nectar sources continue to shrink while hive numbers remain stable or even rise,” a Rural Development Administration representative said. “Beekeepers increasingly rely on artificial feeding such as sugar water, and bees have lost some ability to survive naturally. The industry now follows a structure where farmers raise more bees and lose more bees.”

Debate over sugar-fed honey

Kim pointed to sugar-fed honey as one of the root causes behind declining bee health.

Sugar-fed honey refers to honey produced by feeding bees sugar water. Korea legalized the practice in 2016 through revisions to the Food Sanitation Act. 

Critics argued at the time that sugar does not qualify as a natural substance and therefore conflicted with the definition of honey as a natural product. But the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs approved the change after requests from beekeeping farmers.

The Rural Development Administration estimates that between one-third and one-half of all beekeeping farms use sugar as bee feed.

“A large share of the honey currently sold on the market is sugar-fed honey,” Kim said. 

The KBA tested 6,397 honey samples submitted by beekeepers last year. The association classified 5,312 samples as natural honey and 1,085 as sugar-fed honey. Another 38 samples contained harmful substances including antibiotics.

“Beekeepers inevitably feed sugar water between mid-September and mid-October because people harvest the honey bees stored during spring and summer,” Kim said. “But when farmers overfeed sugar water 24 hours a day to maximize honey production, bees live shorter lives and lose immunity. That raises death rates.”

Price differences remain substantial. Sugar-fed honey sells for around 20,000 won per 2.4-kilogram bottle, less than half the price of natural honey, which usually sells for between 50,000 and 60,000 won.

Kim said some consumers mistakenly believe the Korean term “ sayang honey” refers to honey collected from a specific tree rather than honey produced by feeding bees sugar water.

“Hiding the fact that bees consumed sugar water deceives consumers,” Kim said. 

Since 2024, Kim and about 200 farmers from the Natural Honey Federation (translated) have staged rallies outside the presidential office, the National Assembly, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. They have demanded mandatory labeling that identifies sugar-fed honey.

At demonstrations, participants often display honeycomb made from sugar-fed bees to show that consumers cannot visually distinguish natural honey from sugar-fed honey.

Democratic Party Rep. Yoon Joon-byeong, who represents Jeongeup and Gochang in North Jeolla, introduced a bill in March that would rename sayang honey as “sugar honey” and ban sellers from marketing it as natural honey.

“The term ‘sayang’ itself comes from an abstract Chinese-character expression meaning livestock breeding, so consumers can mistake it for a product similar to natural honey,” Yoon said in March. “Authorities need to clearly inform consumers that the product uses sugar as a raw material so they can make informed choices.”

Industry under pressure

Korea’s beekeeping industry already struggles financially.

A beekeeper who operates 80 two-story hives typically generates annual sales of between 30 million and 40 million won. But actual income falls to between 10 million and 15 million won after transportation and labor costs.

“Out of every 10 beekeepers, three lose money, four barely break even and only three make a profit,” said Lee Yong-guk, head of the Gimje branch of the KBA. “Most people simply maintain their livelihoods. The work force continues to age and few young people enter the industry.”

Imported honey has added further pressure.

Vietnamese honey currently sells for about 3,500 won per kilogram, far below the price of Korean natural honey. Many beekeepers fear that the Korea-Vietnam FTA, signed in 2014, could devastate the domestic industry once tariffs on Vietnamese honey disappear completely in 2029.

“The honey market now revolves around low prices rather than quality,” Kim said. “If consumers lose trust, the entire market could collapse.”

Local governments have started planting more nectar-producing trees to support beekeepers. North Jeolla has pursued such projects since 2015.

The province plans to spend 15.8 billion won between 2024 and 2028 to plant nectar-producing species across 2,200 hectares. The list includes black locust trees, lacquer trees, Siberian ginseng trees and lilies.

Experts say Korea needs stronger quality control and branding systems similar to New Zealand’s manuka honey industry. They argue that authorities should monitor every stage of production, from nectar-source management to distribution and disease control.

“Korea needs to prevent excessive fragmentation among small farms while fostering professional operations centered on smart beekeeping technology and younger farmers,” said Han Sang-mi, director of the apiculture division at the Rural Development Administration.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

BY KIM JUN-HEE [[email protected]]