The short version
We put every USDA honey price we track into one table: 28 annual USDA NASS reports on what beekeepers were paid (1998 to 2025), 24 monthly USDA AMS reports on bulk and import prices (July 2023 to July 2026), and our catalog of 268 honeys. Five numbers stood out.
- **Beekeepers selling direct got $7.15 a pound in 2025.** That is 2.3× their all-channel average of $3.05 and 2.9× the $2.45 that co-ops, packers and private buyers paid them.
- **2025 paid beekeepers more; mid-2026 bulk paid less.** USDA's all-channel producer price rose 26.6% in 2025, to $3.05. The US bulk midpoint for July 2026 was $2.175, 6.5% below July 2025 and 28.3% below July 2023.
- **Imports set the floor.** India's duty-paid bulk honey started at $0.94 a pound in July 2026, 46.3% below the lowest US domestic bulk quote of $1.75.
- **Manuka costs 3.96× clover** per catalog item ($54.86 against $13.85), and its price tracks a lab number: $9.73 more per 100 MGO points.
- **Higher Manuka grades cost less per MGO point.** An MGO 850+ jar costs 4.0× an MGO 100+ jar and carries 8.5× the MGO.
Where the numbers come from
Three sources, kept separate because they measure different things:
None of these numbers is a supermarket shelf price. USDA does not publish one for honey, and we do not scrape retailers. Nothing here is adjusted for inflation. Year-over-year changes compare 2025 with 2024 as USDA revised it in the same March 2026 report; the 28-year chart keeps each year as first published. The full method, gaps included, is on the price index methodology page, and every row is in the free CSV download.
- **USDA NASS Honey** (annual, 1998 to 2025): what producers were paid per pound, split into all channels, sales to co-ops and private buyers, and direct retail. The latest is the March 2026 report covering the 2025 crop.
- **USDA AMS National Honey Report 2901** (monthly): bulk prices for 10,000 lb+ lots and duty-paid import prices by country. We have 24 of the 37 months from July 2023 to July 2026. The longest hole is 10 months, September 2025 to June 2026. Missing months stay missing; we do not fill them in. The latest is the July 2026 issue.
- **Our honey catalog** (268 rows, prices curated September 26, 2026): a low and high price per item for every honey we list. Package sizes vary, so catalog prices compare varietals with each other, not with USDA's per-pound numbers.
Get the Honey Buyer's Cheat Sheet (free PDF)
16 varieties on one page — color, flavor, best use and what a fair price looks like — from the 268 honeys we track.
One pound of honey, five prices
The same pound of honey has a different price at every step. At the bottom sit imports: Uruguay at $1.30–$1.78 a pound, Argentina at $1.39–$2.19, Brazil at $1.98–$2.21 and India from $0.94 in July 2026, all duty-paid bulk. US domestic bulk sold for $1.75–$2.60 the same month, a $2.175 midpoint.
NASS then shows what beekeepers actually collected in 2025: $2.45 from co-ops and packers, $3.05 averaged across every channel, and $7.15 when they sold the jar themselves. The direct-retail pound brings in $4.10 more than the all-channel average.
Set the 2025 direct-retail average against the July 2026 bulk midpoint and the farm stand gets 3.3× the bulk price. Those two numbers come from different reports and different months, so read 3.3× as the size of the gap, not a forecast.
US dollars per pound. Bars are the low-to-high range USDA reported; dots are averages or midpoints. Import and domestic bulk prices use different trade terms, so read them side by side, not as one market.
Show the data table
| Stage | Source and period | USD per lb |
|---|---|---|
| India import | AMS, July 2026, duty-paid | $0.94–$3.59 |
| Uruguay import | AMS, July 2026, duty-paid | $1.30–$1.78 |
| Argentina import | AMS, July 2026, duty-paid | $1.39–$2.19 |
| Brazil import | AMS, July 2026, duty-paid | $1.98–$2.21 |
| US domestic bulk | AMS, July 2026, 10,000 lb+ lots | $1.75–$2.60 (midpoint $2.175) |
| Sold to co-ops, packers | NASS, 2025 average | $2.45 |
| Producer, all channels | NASS, 2025 average | $3.05 |
| Producer direct retail | NASS, 2025 average | $7.15 |
Source: USDA NASS Honey and USDA AMS National Honey Report 2901 via the Raw Honey Guide price index; catalog prices curated 2026-09-26. CC BY 4.0.
2025 paid more; mid-2026 bulk paid less
Every NASS channel rose in 2025. The all-channel average went from $2.41 to $3.05 a pound (26.6%; USDA rounds it to 27%). Sales to co-ops and packers went from $2.11 to $2.45 (16.1%). Direct retail went from $5.90 to $7.15 (21.2%).
In percent, the all-channel average gained most. In dollars, direct retail did: $1.25 more per pound, against $0.64 for the all-channel average and $0.34 for co-op sales. A crop sold by the drum earns the bulk price; the same crop sold by the jar earns the retail price, minus the jars, labels, market fees and time.
The bulk market has since gone the other way. The AMS midpoint for 10,000 lb+ lots was $3.035 in July 2023, $2.325 in July 2025 and $2.175 in July 2026: down 6.5% in a year and 28.3% in three.
Pro Tip
Buying at a farm stand? The 2025 USDA average for direct sales was $7.15 a pound. Divide the price on the jar by its net weight in pounds to compare.
28 years of producer prices
Our NASS series starts in 1998. That year, direct retail was $1.147 a pound and the all-channel average was $0.655. By 2025 they were $7.15 and $3.05: direct retail up 6.2×, the all-channel average up 4.7×.
The gap between the two widened. In 1998 direct retail paid 1.8× the all-channel average; in 2025 it paid 2.3×. Over the same years, the US crop shrank 47.3%, from 220 million pounds to 116 million.
The chart below shows all three channels. The retail line pulls away after 2015; the co-op line barely moves between 2012 and 2020.
USDA NASS annual producer prices by sales channel, US dollars per pound. Not adjusted for inflation.
Show the data table
| Year | Producer direct retail | All channels (average) | Co-ops, packers and private buyers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | $1.147 | $0.655 | $0.629 |
| 1999 | $1.266 | $0.599 | $0.561 |
| 2000 | $1.328 | $0.594 | $0.545 |
| 2001 | $1.406 | $0.669 | $0.633 |
| 2002 | $1.454 | $1.286 | $1.275 |
| 2003 | $1.849 | $1.404 | $1.371 |
| 2004 | $1.887 | $1.085 | $1.015 |
| 2005 | $1.833 | $0.904 | $0.816 |
| 2006 | $1.91 | $1.042 | $0.937 |
| 2007 | $1.961 | $1.032 | $0.956 |
| 2008 | $2.197 | $1.41 | $1.34 |
| 2009 | $2.784 | $1.445 | $1.392 |
| 2010 | $3.054 | $1.603 | $1.531 |
| 2011 | $3.284 | $1.729 | $1.643 |
| 2012 | $3.405 | $1.951 | $1.878 |
| 2013 | $3.735 | $2.121 | $2.047 |
| 2014 | $4.066 | $2.161 | $2.064 |
| 2015 | $4.096 | $2.09 | $1.955 |
| 2016 | $4.62 | $2.075 | $1.881 |
| 2017 | $4.777 | $2.156 | $2.01 |
| 2018 | $4.21 | $2.166 | $2.011 |
| 2019 | $4.85 | $1.97 | $1.70 |
| 2020 | $5.22 | $2.03 | $1.78 |
| 2021 | $5.04 | $2.54 | $2.30 |
| 2022 | $6.04 | $2.96 | $2.74 |
| 2023 | $6.55 | $2.52 | $2.23 |
| 2024 | $5.74 | $2.69 | $2.27 |
| 2025 | $7.15 | $3.05 | $2.45 |
Source: USDA NASS Honey and USDA AMS National Honey Report 2901 via the Raw Honey Guide price index; catalog prices curated 2026-09-26. CC BY 4.0.
Imports set the floor
USDA AMS reported duty-paid import prices from 4 countries in July 2026. India had the lowest reading at $0.94 a pound. Of India's 6 price rows that month, 5 sat at or below $1.16, all under the lowest US domestic quote of $1.75. The sixth, a white orange blossom lot, reached $3.59 and sets the top of India's range.
Two cautions. Import prices are duty-paid and domestic bulk prices are quoted f.o.b. at the seller, so the terms differ. And a low price says nothing on its own about what is in the drum. For label checks, use our guide on how to tell if honey is real.
Where you buy and what color it is
NASS lists 20 states individually. In 2025 North Carolina was highest at $7.99 a pound and North Dakota lowest at $1.89, a 4.2× spread. The ranking follows volume: North Dakota is the largest producing state in the table and North Carolina the smallest.
Color matters too. NASS splits prices into four color classes. The "all other honey, area specialties" class averaged $5.91 a pound across all channels in 2025, 2.6× the $2.29 for water white to white honey. Sold direct, the same two classes averaged $8.94 and $5.96.
What each varietal costs next to clover
Our catalog lists 268 honeys across 17 floral sources. Clover is the cheapest, at an average of $13.85 per item across 21 listings. Every other floral source below is shown as a multiple of that.
Manuka leads at $54.86 per item, 3.96× clover, across 19 listings. Tupelo is second at $34.06, 2.46× clover, across 7 listings. The cheapest step up from clover is orange blossom at 1.18×.
By origin, New Zealand has the highest median catalog price at $38.99 across 26 items. Take Manuka out and New Zealand drops to $24.24 across 8 items. US honeys, 115 of the 268, have a median of $17.49.
These are per-item prices, not per-pound prices, because package sizes vary. Read the multiples, not the dollar gaps.
Average catalog price per item across 268 priced catalog rows, US dollars, with the multiple of the clover average. Package sizes vary, so compare the multiples, not the dollar gaps per pound.
Show the data table
| Floral source | Catalog items | Average price per item | Multiple of clover |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manuka | 19 | $54.86 | 3.96× |
| Tupelo | 7 | $34.06 | 2.46× |
| Heather | 10 | $25.64 | 1.85× |
| Chestnut | 9 | $23.66 | 1.71× |
| Other varietals | 62 | $22.70 | 1.64× |
| Lavender | 11 | $22.63 | 1.63× |
| Sourwood | 11 | $21.17 | 1.53× |
| Eucalyptus | 14 | $20.38 | 1.47× |
| Linden | 11 | $19.99 | 1.44× |
| Sage | 9 | $19.99 | 1.44× |
| Acacia | 15 | $18.66 | 1.35× |
| Avocado | 9 | $18.44 | 1.33× |
| Blueberry | 7 | $17.99 | 1.30× |
| Wildflower | 26 | $17.52 | 1.26× |
| Buckwheat | 11 | $16.85 | 1.22× |
| Orange blossom | 16 | $16.30 | 1.18× |
| Clover | 21 | $13.85 | 1.00× |
Source: USDA NASS Honey and USDA AMS National Honey Report 2901 via the Raw Honey Guide price index; catalog prices curated 2026-09-26. CC BY 4.0.
Manuka: you pay less per MGO point as grades rise
Manuka prices follow a lab number, the MGO grade on the label. Across the 18 Manuka listings in our catalog that state an MGO or UMF grade (UMF converted to its MGO equivalent), a straight-line fit gives $19.34 plus $9.73 per 100 MGO points, with an r² of 0.97. The Manuka price index plots every listing.
The fixed part of the price matters most at the bottom. Manuka Blend Honey at MGO 30 costs $0.583 per MGO point. New Zealand Manuka UMF 20+ at MGO 829 costs $0.1086 per point, 5.4× less. MGO 850+ costs $104.99 against $26.49 for MGO 100+: 4.0× the price for 8.5× the MGO.
MGO is a grading number here, nothing more. For what UMF and MGO labels mean, see how Manuka grading works.
Check your own jar
Enter a price and a net weight below. The checker converts your jar to dollars per pound and puts it on the same ladder: the cheapest July 2026 import, the July 2026 bulk midpoint, the 2025 all-channel average and the 2025 direct-retail average.
To compare two jars against each other instead, use the honey value calculator.
Where does your jar land?
Enter what you paid and the net weight on the label. Use weight ounces, not fluid ounces. The checker converts your jar to dollars per pound and puts it next to the USDA numbers in this study. Nothing you type leaves this page.
Enter a price and a net weight to place your jar.
Scale: US dollars per pound, logarithmic, so a Manuka jar and a bulk import both fit.
- Cheapest import: India, July 2026: $0.94/lb
- US bulk midpoint, July 2026: $2.175/lb
- Producer all-channel, 2025: $3.05/lb
- Producer direct retail, 2025: $7.15/lb
A higher price per pound does not prove a better or more authentic honey, and a lower one does not prove a bad one. Compare origin, floral source and label evidence separately.
Use the data
Everything in this study is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Credit Raw Honey Guide and link to this page or the price index.
Downloads: the price index CSV (every USDA row with its source PDF and checksum), the catalog and price data page, and the three charts above as an embeddable chart page.
