Honey and Maple Syrup

General Information

Want to sell “Wisconsin Certified Honey”?  Make sure you check out Wisconsin Statute 100.187(2)(a) and Wisconsin Administrative Code ATCP 87.017(1) to find out how. 

Few people may realize that “America’s Dairyland” also produces a couple of sweet delights that are in no way related to dairy—honey and maple syrup. 

The bees stayed busy in Wisconsin producing more than 4.3 million pounds of honey in 2010—making Wisconsin 8^th in the nation in honey production.  The work of 68,000 colonies of bees statewide amounted to a crop valued at more than $7.2 million. 

Wisconsin ranks 4^th in the nation behind Vermont, New York and Maine in production of maple syrup.  In 2010, Wisconsin producers yielded 117,000 gallons of maple syrup, contributing 6 percent of the country’s total maple syrup supply. The 2010 crop was valued at about $4.6 million. 

Currently, maple syrup processors must register their business at no cost with the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.  Processors who produce pure maple syrup and concentrated sap and sell these products wholesale to other processors for further processing are exempt from food processing plant licensing as long as their gross receipts are less than $5,000 per year.