British Honey & UK Honey – Produced by British Bee Farmers
British honey – or UK honey – is honey produced here in the UK by British honey bees and the beekeepers and bee farmers who care for them.
It is also much scarcer than many people realise. The UK produces only around 14% of the honey consumed by the domestic market, while Food Standards Agency data shows that 51,400 tonnes of honey were imported into the UK in 2022 alone.
Supporting genuine British honey therefore means supporting home-grown food production, professional bee farming, rural businesses and the skills and investment needed to produce more of our own honey here in Britain.
At Hutch Family Honey, we’re part of that production. We’re a family-run professional bee farm producing honey from our own bees across Northern England. We raise our own queen bees, manage our colonies, harvest our honey and oversee its journey through extraction and production to the finished jar – giving us direct knowledge and traceability from hive to jar.
Why Is British Honey So Scarce?
Britain consumes far more honey than it produces.
The Bee Farmers’ Association estimates that UK-produced honey accounts for only a small proportion of the honey consumed domestically. Producing honey commercially in Britain means working with livestock, weather, flowering crops and a relatively short and unpredictable season – a strong honey crop can never simply be manufactured to meet demand.
The result is a significant reliance on imported honey. Food Standards Agency data shows that the UK imported 51,400 tonnes of honey in 2022, up from around 41,200 tonnes in 2016.
That makes genuine British honey a relatively scarce British agricultural product – and maintaining the skills, bees, businesses and investment required to produce it here increasingly important.
Where Does the UK's Imported Honey Come From?
The UK’s reliance on imported honey is also heavily concentrated.
Food Standards Agency data covering 2016–2022 shows that 68% of UK honey imports by weight originated from China. In 2022 alone, the UK imported approximately 36,767 tonnes of honey from China – around 72% of all honey imported that year.
China isn’t inherently synonymous with poor-quality honey, and imported honey has an important place in supplying UK demand. But the scale of our reliance on overseas production highlights just how different the British honey sector is.
When you buy genuinely British-produced honey from a British bee farmer, you’re supporting honey that has actually been produced here – by bees and bee farmers working within British agriculture.
Why Supporting British Honey Matters
British Food Production
Every jar of genuinely British-produced honey represents food produced here in Britain. Supporting British honey helps sustain and grow domestic production in a market currently dominated by imports.
Professional Bee Farming
British honey depends on the bee farmers who maintain colonies, breed bees, invest in equipment and retain the specialist skills required to produce honey commercially in Britain.
Shorter More Transparent Food Chains
Buying directly from a British honey producer creates a shorter and more transparent journey between the bees, the bee farmer and the person enjoying the finished honey.
Rural & Family Business
British bee farms support rural employment, invest in their communities and help keep agricultural knowledge, skills and food production within the UK.
We Don't Just Sell British Honey. We Produce It.
At Hutch Family Honey, British honey isn’t something we source from a supplier and put our label on. We’re primary producers.
We manage our own honey bee colonies across Northern England, raise around 2,000 queen bees each season and produce approximately 15 tonnes of honey annually.
Our family and team are involved throughout the process – from bee breeding and colony management to harvesting, extraction, production and packing.
That gives us something particularly important when talking about British honey: first-hand knowledge of where it came from, how it was produced and the people responsible for producing it.
What Makes British Honey Different?
British honey is a genuine seasonal agricultural crop. Its colour, flavour, aroma and texture are influenced by where the bees forage, which flowers are producing nectar, the weather and the time of year.
That means genuine British honey doesn’t have to taste exactly the same from one harvest to the next.
Our own bees can produce very different honeys through the season – from lighter spring crops through summer honey to the distinctive character of heather honey.
For us, that natural variation isn’t something to eliminate. It’s part of the provenance of the crop and one of the things that makes producing British honey so interesting.
British Honey – From People Who Produce It
This guide isn’t written from research alone. It’s based on our first-hand experience as professional British bee farmers.
Northumberland Honey Company is a family-run bee farming and honey production business behind Hutch Family Honey. We manage our own bees, breed our own queen bees and oversee our honey from the hive through to the finished jar.
Luke Hutchinson is a professional bee farmer, queen breeder, Vice-Chair of the Bee Farmers’ Association of the United Kingdom and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Wax Chandlers.
Suzanne “Suzie” Hutchinson PhD is a scientist, professional bee farmer and co-founder, combining her scientific background with practical experience of honey production and bee farming as well as drawing on critically appraised facts.
Together, that gives us both the practical and scientific experience to talk about British honey from the perspective of people actually producing it.
British Honey FAQs
What is British Honey
British honey is honey produced by honey bees here in Britain. Genuine British honey is a home-grown agricultural product, reflecting the flowers, landscape and seasons in which the bees forage.
Is UK honey the same as British Honey?
For consumers, “UK honey” and “British honey” are commonly used to describe honey produced here in the UK. Both distinguish domestically produced honey from imported honey.
Why is British Honey more expensive?
British honey is relatively scarce and costly to produce. Professional bee farmers manage colonies year-round while working with a short, weather-dependent honey season in which crop yields can vary considerably.
Where can I buy genuine British honey?
Buying directly from a British bee farmer provides clear provenance. Hutch Family Honey is produced from our own bees in Northern England and overseen by us from hive to jar.
About the Author
Luke Hutchinson
Professional Bee Farmer, Queen Breeder & Co-Founder
Luke Hutchinson is co-founder of Northumberland Honey Company and Hutch Family Honey, producing British honey commercially from the family’s own bees in Northern England.
He is Vice-Chair of the Bee Farmers’ Association of the United Kingdom and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Wax Chandlers, and writes from first-hand experience of professional bee farming, queen breeding and British honey production.