The State of Raw Honey 2026
We analyzed every honey in the Raw Honey Guide catalogue: 304 listings from 15 named countries plus 28 more, 222 brands and 16 named floral sources, each checked against a live product page on October 7, 2026. Here is what the numbers say about how raw honey is priced, sourced and certified.
By Sam French · Data: /open-data · Method: /learn/methodology · Updated · ~7 min read
Manuka averages 2.8× the catalogue mean; every other named variety averages $11.17 to $25.30
Average listing price by floral source. Manuka is its own category at $58.38. The other 15 named floral sources average between $11.17 (linden) and $25.30 (tupelo). Clover, the price index baseline, averages $13.03.
Bar = average of (priceMin + priceMax) / 2 across all listings of that floral source, USD. Floral sources with fewer than 5 listings would be left out; the mixed “Other” bucket (99 listings) is not charted.
These are listing prices, not prices per ounce. Jar sizes in the catalogue vary widely, so check the weight before deciding a jar is expensive. Outside Manuka, the variety moves the average price by about $14.13 from the cheapest to the dearest.
Higher MGO costs more: about $9.79 per 100 MGO, but the grade explains only three-fifths of the price
Plotting MGO grade against listing price for the 16 Manuka honeys that state one gives a fitted line of about $9.79 per 100 MGO, with r² = 0.59. Listings scatter widely around the line: the same grade sells at very different prices depending on brand and jar size.
Each dot is a Manuka honey from the catalogue that states an MGO or UMF grade (n=16; UMF converted to its MGO equivalent). Dashed line: least-squares fit, price ≈ $19.19 + $0.0979 × MGO, r² = 0.59. Prices are listing midpoints for jars of different sizes.
UMF grades include a minimum MGO (methylglyoxal) level. Approximate equivalents: UMF 5+ ≈ MGO 83, UMF 10+ ≈ MGO 263, UMF 15+ ≈ MGO 514, UMF 20+ ≈ MGO 829, UMF 25+ ≈ MGO 1200.
An MGO 100 listing comes to about $28.98 and an MGO 829 (UMF 20+) listing about $100.35. Compare price per gram at the grade you want before you buy.
New Zealand averages 2.2× the U.S. listing price, and the gap is Manuka
Average listing price by origin. New Zealand’s $39.28 average comes from Manuka: 16 of its 28 listings. Its other 12 listings average $13.02, below the U.S. average of $18.25. Averages for origins with few listings move a lot with one jar, and jar sizes differ by origin, so a low average does not mean cheaper honey per ounce.
Average of (priceMin + priceMax) / 2 per origin, USD; origins with at least 3 listings. “Other countries” pools 35 listings from 28 countries outside the 15 named origins.
Catalogue share by origin
Where the 304 listings come from.
222 brands for 286 branded listings: no brand holds more than 2.1%
No brand in the catalogue has more than 6 listings. The largest, Ames Farm, holds 2.1% of branded listings. 10 brands have three or more; the other 212 account for 244 listings. We list honeys one variety and region at a time, so this describes the producers behind our catalogue, not supermarket market share.
Brands with three or more listings
Long-tail bar not to scale.
Ames Farm has 6 of 286 branded listings.
180 of 222 brands appear exactly once.
A beekeeper you’ve never heard of is the rule in this catalogue, not the exception. Look at the floral source, the harvest season and the stated region or apiary instead of the brand name.
Only 2% of the catalogue is USDA Organic, and every one of those listings is imported
6 of 304 listings carry USDA Organic, and all 6 come from outside the USA. The USDA has no honey-specific organic standard, and certifiers generally require organic forage around the hives, which few U.S. beekeepers can document. A missing organic seal on U.S. raw honey is common and is not a quality verdict. See the certification audit for every seal.
Type breakdown
How the catalogue splits across processing styles. Raw dominates because raw is what we curate.
Five practical takeaways from the 2026 numbers
Outside Manuka, named varieties average $11.17 to $25.30 a listing.
Before paying more than that for a non-Manuka honey, check the jar weight: listing prices here mix sizes.
Choose the grade first, then compare prices at that grade.
Each 100 MGO adds about $9.79 on the fitted line, but listings at the same grade differ widely (r² 0.59), so compare several listings at the grade you want.
Compare the same variety at the same size, not origin averages.
Origin averages mix varieties and jar sizes: New Zealand’s is high because of Manuka, and its non-Manuka listings average $13.02.
Don’t anchor on brand.
81% of brands in the catalogue have just one listing. Floral source, harvest season and a stated region or apiary tell you more.
Absence of “organic” is not absence of quality, especially for U.S.-raised honey.
Every USDA Organic listing in our catalogue is imported. For raw honey from a known producer, ask about treatment practices and where the hives are.
Methodology & caveats
- Source data:
honeys.jsonin the Raw Honey Guide repository, every listing checked against a live product page on October 7, 2026 (n=304). Available as JSON or CSV at /open-data. - “Average listing price” uses the midpoint of each listing’s
priceMin/priceMaxretail range (USD). Listings cover different jar sizes, so the averages are not prices per ounce. - Floral sources with fewer than 5 listings are left out of the price chart, and origins with fewer than 3 listings out of the origin price chart, to avoid noise from thin samples.
- This is a curated catalogue, not a random sample of every honey: it over-indexes on raw, single-source and specialty honey because that is what we research and recommend.
- Brand share, certification share and type share describe the catalogue only and should not be read as market share.
- The first version of this report (April–May 2026) used a 210-listing catalogue that had not been checked against live product pages. Its figures and brand names are withdrawn; every number on this page is recomputed from the verified catalogue.
Edited by Sam French · Raw Honey Guide Editorial Team
Source reviewed against primary literature and official guidance where available. Health content is educational, not medical advice, and does not replace a licensed clinician.