USDA raises honey board assessment to 2 cents a pound in two steps, starting Sept. 1

Half a cent a pound is the whole change. The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) on Aug. 31 published a final rule raising the assessment that funds the National Honey Board from $0.015 to $0.02 per pound of honey and honey products, phased in over two steps, with the first taking effect Sept. 1^[1]. AMS estimates the full increase will add $2.99 million a year to the program, with $2.42 million coming from importers and $567,782 from domestic first handlers^[1].

The rate had moved only once since the honey program began in 2008, when it rose from 1 cent to 1.5 cents in 2015^[1].

The details: two steps and a moved start date

The rule rewrites one paragraph, 7 CFR 1212.52(a)^[1]. Through Aug. 31, 2026, the rate stays at $0.015 per pound. From Sept. 1 through Dec. 31, it is $0.0175. On and after Jan. 1, 2027, it is $0.02, and it stays there until USDA changes or ends it^[1].

The split follows the order’s own limits. A board recommendation may not raise the assessment by more than $0.02 per pound, or by more than $0.0025 in any single fiscal year^[1]. Each step in the rule is exactly $0.0025.

The first step is three months later than planned. The proposed rule, published March 9, would have started the $0.0175 rate on June 1, 2026, with the second step on Jan. 1, 2027^[2]. The National Honey Board filed the only neutral comment and asked that, if June 1 slipped, the first increase begin on the first day of the month after the final rule appeared in the Federal Register, with the January date unchanged^[1]. AMS agreed, which is why the new rate starts the day after publication^[1].

Who pays is unchanged. The order assesses first handlers and importers who handle or import more than 250,000 pounds of honey or honey products in a calendar year^[1]. First handlers pay on domestically produced honey they handle, including producers who act as their own first handler, and importers pay on honey brought in through U.S. Customs and Border Protection^[1].

Who pays the honey assessment, and how much more?

The base is mostly imported honey. In the 2024 fiscal period the board counted 95 importers and 34 first handlers under the program, and total assessments were $8.96 million^[1]. Importers paid $7.26 million, or 81%, and first handlers paid $1.70 million^[1]. Dividing by the 1.5-cent rate, AMS put assessed volume at 484.11 million pounds of imports and 113.56 million pounds of domestic honey^[1].

For a business moving 1 million assessable pounds a year, the arithmetic runs from $15,000 at the old rate to $17,500 at the interim rate and $20,000 once the January step takes hold^[1]. AMS put the average 2024 import price at $5.34 per pound, so the full 2-cent levy works out to a little under 0.4% of that price^[1].

AMS used the same $5.34 figure as a proxy for domestic packer prices because, it said, little handler price data exists^[1]. On that basis it estimated average annual receipts of $27.21 million per assessed importer and $17.83 million per handler, both under the $34 million Small Business Administration ceiling, and concluded the rule does not disproportionately burden small handlers or importers^[1]. The rule adds no new reporting forms^[1].

Organic honey sits in its own lane. Products that are 100% organic under the National Organic Program may be exempt, but Customs collects the assessment on all imports, so importers of certified organic honey must apply to the board for a refund^[1]. The board must hold money in reserve for those requests through the fiscal year and for 90 days into the next one^[1].

Why the board asked for more money

The board’s case rests on inflation and that organic refund reserve. The rule says U.S. inflation has risen 36% since the 2015 increase, while board assessment revenue has increased only slightly since 2023, cutting into what the board can spend on staff, promotion and research contracts^[1]. The reserve for organic reimbursements, it says, has pushed the board to be “more conservative with promotion and research efforts,” and higher assessments would let it fund that work “with less concern of having to move funds” to cover refunds^[1].

The request started with the packers. The board first discussed an increase at its spring 2024 meeting and floated it in June 2024 at a meeting of the National Honey Packers and Dealers Association, whose members voted to ask the board for 2 cents^[1]. On Oct. 25, 2024, the board voted 9 to 1 to recommend the change^[1]. AMS says the members voting represent producers, handlers, importers and the industry marketing cooperative^[1]. The board considered leaving the rate alone and rejected it, warning it could fail to cover its expenses^[1].

In the field: beekeepers object, and AMS says most won’t pay

Most of the opposition came from people who will not write the check. AMS received 58 comments: 39 opposing comments from industry members not known to be subject to the order, one opposing comment from a first handler that is, 13 supportive comments from parties subject to the order and members of the public, one neutral comment, three with no written text and one left unposted^[1].

The American Honey Producers Association (AHPA), which represents commercial honey producers, was among the opponents. In a letter dated March 24, AHPA President Steven Coy wrote that generic promotion funded by the assessment has expanded honey consumption “without differentiating U.S.-produced honey from imported honey” and that because imports dominate the U.S. market, “these promotions disproportionately benefit imports rather than domestic producers”^[3]. AHPA said research spending “does not compensate” for that, and asked AMS to address the organic exemption, a lack of focus on bee health and forage, and missing performance measures before raising any rate^[3]. “AHPA strongly opposes the proposed increase,” the letter concluded^[3].

AMS answered those arguments one by one. It said it reviews all board promotional materials and must reject any that disparage a market segment, producer, importer or competing product, and that the order requires the board to promote honey generically^[1]. On the cost argument, AMS said most small-scale and hobbyist beekeepers do not pay assessments at all, and none of the 39 opposing commenters said they were first handlers subject to the order; it concluded domestic beekeepers would not be harmed^[1].

On organic honey, AMS said the exemption comes from section 10004 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 and a 2015 rule, and that removing it or assessing only imports was beyond the reach of this action^[1]. Requests to shift money from promotion to bee health or authenticity research were noted, with AMS pointing out the board must already spend at least 5% of anticipated assessment revenue on production research and decides the rest with USDA approval^[1]. Calls for more Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, DNA and isotope testing of imported honey were ruled out of scope^[1].

For a beekeeper selling bulk honey to a packer, the rule’s direct cost falls on the packer, not the producer^[1]. Whether packers pass any of it back in the price they pay is a question the rule does not address.

On the Hill and in the law: no vote, but a petition route

Congress set the rules for this kind of increase three decades ago. The Commodity Promotion, Research, and Information Act of 1996, part of the 1996 farm bill, has boards recommend assessment rates that take effect once the Secretary approves them, and lets an order require a referendum before a rate increase^[4]. The Act’s referendum section does not apply to amendments of an order^[4]. Under the honey order as AMS describes it, an increase needs a two-thirds vote of board members present and USDA approval^[1].

That leaves an administrative path for anyone who objects. A person subject to the order can petition the Secretary, within two years of the effective date of the provision being challenged, arguing that it is not in accordance with law and asking for a modification or exemption^{[1, 4]}. The petitioner gets a chance at a hearing, and can take the Secretary’s final ruling to federal district court by filing within 20 days^[4]. Only those subject to the order can use it, which leaves out most of the beekeepers who commented^{[1, 4]}.

No member of Congress weighed in on the rule in the sources cited.

What to watch

• Sept. 1, 2026: the $0.0175 per-pound rate takes effect for first handlers and importers^[1].
• Jan. 1, 2027: the rate rises to $0.02 per pound and stays there until changed^[1].
• Organic refunds: whether the higher rate eases the reserve problem the board cited, or whether reimbursement requests keep rising faster^[1].
• 2028: the two-year window to petition USDA over the first step runs to about Sept. 1, 2028, under the Act^{[1, 4]}.