“The emergency brake for honey from Ukraine has been activated. Until 5 June 2025, Ukrainian honey imported into the EU will be covered by the tariff quota of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area,” announced the institution's spokesperson for Trade, in a post on the social network X (formerly Twitter), Olof Gill.

The EU has already adopted this mechanism for products such as poultry meat, eggs, sugar, oats, corn and semolina, and is now also applying it to honey, with the volume of this new quota set at 18,507.32 tonnes.

Imports of Ukrainian honey into the EU have remained relatively stable over the past five years, averaging around 49,000 tonnes per year.

This emergency brake comes as part of a customs duty exemption granted since 2022 to support Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion, but which has already provoked protests from European farmers, who complain that the flow of Ukrainian products has driven down local prices and increased unfair competition.

A European mechanism has therefore been introduced to ensure that rapid corrective measures can be taken in the event of major disruptions to the EU market or to the markets of one or more Member States.

The aim is to stabilise imports at average import volumes so that if the flow of products from Ukraine exceeds these thresholds, tariffs are reimposed to ensure that imports do not significantly exceed previous years' levels.

With such a ceiling, the EU claims to continue supporting Ukraine in the context of the war launched by Russia almost two years ago, while at the same time protecting EU farmers who are most affected, notably in neighbouring countries.

EU imports from Ukraine amounted to €22.8 billion in 2023, compared with pre-war levels of €24 billion in 2021.