Over the past 2 or 3 months, the honey section in both Woolworths and Coles had often been depleted of their store brand product. Even the next cheapest honey often had no or very little stock.
I got some Coles brand honey this weekend but the prices have increased dramatically.
Nov 2013 - 500g Coles honey - $3.29
March 2014 - $3.29
April 2014 - $4.19
June 2014 - $4.99
51% increase in price over 3 months. Woolworths has also raised its honey prices and sells their 500g Honey for $5.36.
Why is this happening? Apparently, there is a honey shortage and it's only getting worse. So much so that honey producers are recommending people consume less honey as shortages of supply are inevitable.
"Most of our beekeepers would be down in production between 50 and 90 per cent, depending on where they're situated."
"Basically just a series of bad weather events over many months have wiped out largely most of our honey crops across the country."
Looks like bushfires, droughts, and floods have affected honey production. I wonder if science can attribute these to climate change or simply a bad pattern/bad luck of weather.
Anyone know of good alternatives to honey (other than sugar) or other places to source cheap honey?
So that's why honey has disappeared from my local Aldi in recent months. Thanks for that. Aldi's honey is good value I think, Organic Honey 500g $4.99. Got a couple of them from Aldi Heidelberg though not long ago, I believe that store doesn't have as many customers as my local Aldi, so you can try those stores which are not so popular with the locals in the area (the ones that are always neat and tidy).