ABSTRACT
This chapter draws the attention to the singular but complex product that honey is. It discusses that the conditions within international markets. The chapter presents two important aspects associated with this product: technical innovation and sustainability. Industrial honey is used in the food industry, as a sweetener and perfume and in the pharmaceutical industry or as a cosmetic. In the European marketing channels for honey, we find as main segments the producers, the retailers, the importers, and the industrials. Sometimes producers and retailers integrate different functions. The international trade in honey reflects the reduction in its production by about 25 per cent. The possibility to induce in producers the need to innovate in the production and marketing processes using modern techniques can lead to the implementation of associative links in defence of their specific interests and qualities which serve in the long term as forms of local growth and development in many regions around the world.
