Can I sell honey in BC?

From your own registered hives

• At a farmers’ market

  A market with a market manager — farmers’ markets, Christmas markets, craft fairs

  Yes, if

  Yes, without applying to Island Health. Pure honey is on the market guideline’s lower-risk list, so it needs no health approval as long as nothing is added to it. Flavoured or infused honey is a separate case — see “Infused & flavoured honey”.

  • Nothing added — no vanilla, lavender, fruit or spices.
  • Sold in person at a market with a market manager.
  • You are registered as a beekeeper, and your apiary is registered — required of every beekeeper, with no minimum hive count.
  • Labelled with its name, the net weight in grams, and your name and address — no ingredient list, and no Nutrition Facts table while you sell it yourself at markets.

• At a festival or event

  Fairs, festivals, sports events, fundraisers — anything that is not a market

  Yes, if

  Yes, as sealed jars. At events, packaged food that doesn’t need refrigeration needs no Island Health permit. Offering tastes, or selling honey by the scoop, is different — ask Island Health first.

  • Sealed jars.
  • You are registered as a beekeeper, and your apiary is registered — required of every beekeeper, with no minimum hive count.
  • Labelled “Honey” (or with the blossom, like “Clover honey”), the net weight in grams, and your name and address — in English and French unless it qualifies as “local food”. No ingredient list is needed. A Nutrition Facts table is needed unless you sell it only yourself at a roadside stand, farmers’ market, fair or craft show.

• From your door, shop or farm gate

  Customers buy where you make, grow or sell it

  Yes, if

  Yes. A stand or shop that sells only sealed, shelf-stable food such as jarred honey is outside BC’s Food Premises Regulation, so it needs no Island Health approval. Selling eggs, meat or other chilled food there as well changes that.

  • Sealed jars.
  • You are registered as a beekeeper, and your apiary is registered — required of every beekeeper, with no minimum hive count.
  • Labelled “Honey” (or with the blossom, like “Clover honey”), the net weight in grams, and your name and address — in English and French unless it qualifies as “local food”. No ingredient list is needed. A Nutrition Facts table is needed unless you sell it only yourself at a roadside stand, farmers’ market, fair or craft show.

• Online, with pickup or delivery

  Orders taken online, by message or by phone

  Yes, if

  Yes, with pickup, delivery or shipping within BC. Sealed honey needs no health permit, and grading only matters once it leaves BC. Honey you also sell online loses the market-and-roadside exemption from a Nutrition Facts table.

  • Sealed jars.
  • You are registered as a beekeeper, and your apiary is registered — required of every beekeeper, with no minimum hive count.
  • Labelled “Honey” (or with the blossom, like “Clover honey”), the net weight in grams, and your name and address — in English and French unless it qualifies as “local food”. No ingredient list is needed. A Nutrition Facts table is needed unless you sell it only yourself at a roadside stand, farmers’ market, fair or craft show.

• To shops, cafés & restaurants

  Wholesale, or on consignment in someone else’s store

  Ask first

  Often yes, but it depends on the buyer. A shop that sells only sealed, shelf-stable food is outside the Food Premises Regulation and can stock your honey; restaurants, cafés and grocers under that regulation must buy from “approved sources”, and nothing published says whether a registered beekeeper counts. Ask Island Health, or the buyer, what they need from you.

• To customers outside BC

  Shipping or selling across a provincial border

  Yes, if

  Yes, once it’s graded and packed by a federal licence holder. Inside BC honey needs no grade, but honey sent to another province must be graded Canada No. 1, 2 or 3 and labelled with that grade, and jars for consumers must be packed and labelled under a Safe Food for Canadians licence. You can extract and strain it yourself without a licence.

  • The grade name (and colour class) on the label.
  • Consumer jars packed and labelled by a Safe Food for Canadians licence holder, in a standard size: 375 g or less, 500 g, 750 g, 1 kg, 1.5 kg, 2 kg, 3 kg or 5 kg.
  • “Product of Canada” or “Canadian Honey” on the label.
  • The full label in English and French.

How it’s classified

More in honey, or every food, A to Z.

Businesses that sell it