Petitioner Urges Commerce to Find PMS, Use Third-Country Prices in ADD Case on Raw Honey
The American Honey Producers Association filed a brief Sept. 14 with the Commerce Department alleging a particular market situation exists for the agency’s antidumping duty investigation on raw honey from India (A-533-903). The association, petitioner in the case, said the prevalence of cheap adulterated honey made with significant amounts of sugar syrup on the Indian market have depressed prices for Indian raw honey.
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“Producers of honey in India sold adulterated honey containing significant amounts of sugar syrup (up to 75 percent in some cases), which costs significantly less than raw honey,” the brief said. “This practice depressed pricing for sales of raw honey in the Indian market, as those selling unadulterated raw honey had to compete with adulterated honey prices as low as Rs. 60-75 per kilogram. The prices for raw honey, despite hovering around Rs. 150 per kilogram in 2014, have decreased significantly despite increases in home market demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The association requests that Commerce “determine that a PMS affected the prices of and the cost of producing the subject raw honey over the [period of investigation (POI)] and instead rely on the world import price of honey or the average import value for countries at a similar level of economic development to India to value prices and costs for the respondents in this investigation -- Allied Natural Product ("Allied") and Ambrosia Natural Products ("Ambrosia") or their suppliers should the Department rely on beekeeper/middleman costs instead of the respondents' acquisition costs,” it said.