Honey crystallisation offers new value-added opportunity for local processors

The natural crystallisation of honey, often mistaken by some consumers as evidence of added sugar, could present an untapped value-added opportunity for Jamaica’s beekeeping and honey-processing industry, according to apiculture specialist Hugh Smith.

Smith, chief plant protection officer in the Ministry of Agriculture’s Apiculture Unit, told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview that rather than treating crystallised honey as a defect, local beekeepers and processors could transform its semi-solid, “brick-like” state into new products.

“When you have crystallised honey in Europe it is a blessing,” Smith said, pointing to overseas markets where crystallised honey is deliberately processed and sold as a value-added product.