For years an EU honey label could say "blend of EU and non-EU honeys" and be compliant. That sentence told a consumer nothing and was designed to. From 14 June 2026 it is no longer enough. Directive (EU) 2024/1438 requires each country of origin to be named and given its percentage, and for an own-brand honey line that turns a labelling formality into a sourcing question.
What the rule now says
Every country of origin of a honey blend has to appear on the label, in the principal field of vision, listed in descending order by weight, each with the percentage it contributes. A tolerance of five percentage points is allowed on each share, which acknowledges that blending is not a laboratory exercise.
Member States were required to transpose the directive by 14 December 2025, and the rules apply from 14 June 2026. Artwork that predates the change is not grandfathered: honey placed on the market after that date has to carry the new statement.
The one simplification, and why it is not automatic
The directive lets Member States allow percentages to be shown only for the four largest shares, provided those four together make up more than 50% of the blend. It is a national option, not an EU-wide rule. A brand selling in several markets cannot assume the simplification applies everywhere; it has to be checked country by country, and the safest label is one that would be compliant without it.
Why this is a sourcing problem before it is a labelling problem
To write "Türkiye 60%, Ukraine 25%, Argentina 15%" truthfully, someone has to know the origin of every lot that went into the blend, by weight, and to have kept that record through blending. If the supplier cannot provide lot-level origin data, the percentages cannot be written, and the brand is left choosing between a label it cannot substantiate and a product it cannot sell.
That data has to exist at the source. It cannot be reconstructed at the packing line, and it cannot be inferred from a certificate of analysis. Requesting it is therefore part of the sourcing brief, not part of the artwork approval.
The single-origin route
There is a simpler path. A honey wholly from one country carries that country as its origin, with no percentages and no descending order to manage. For a brand that wants a clean label and a clear story, single-origin sourcing does both.
Türkiye makes that realistic rather than boutique. It is the world's second-largest producer of natural honey, and in pine honey specifically it supplies around 90% of world production — a distinctive product available at industrial volume from a single origin. A single-origin Turkish pine honey line is a label that writes itself.
Responsibility, and what to put in writing
The obligation sits with the operator under whose name the honey is marketed — the brand owner in an own-brand programme. A supplier can and should provide lot-level origin data, batch analyses and the composition information the label relies on; it cannot carry the legal responsibility for a label with someone else's name on it. A short written division of who supplies what, and who signs off the artwork against it, settles the question before it becomes a dispute.
TeraVella works in honey as a sourcing partner — we do not claim to own an apiary or a filling plant. We verify a producer against your brief, document origin at lot level so that the label statement is written from data, collect batch analyses, and manage packing in jars, tins or bulk under your own brand with the destination's requirements — including the EU's approved-establishment condition for third-country honey — checked at the start. We hold ISO 9001, ISO 22000 and ISO 27001 and make no organic or other certification claim. Volumes and prices are confirmed at quotation.
