Sweeteners World Trade and Behaviour in the Pandemic. Evidence from Honey Remedies Nexus Mountain Apis Mellifera Product

Sugar Tech. 2023 Feb 9:1-12. doi: 10.1007/s12355-023-01243-6. Online ahead of print.

Abstract

The paper proposes a construct for sweeteners (SMH-sugar, molasses, and honey class) consumer behavior, focusing on the mountain Apis Mellifera healing effects and its market. The paper develops three research dimensions, respectively, the importance of the healing properties of SMH products, the consumer behavior of SMH clients, and the world trade of SMH. Apis Mellifera product is considered one of the primary natural prevention and treatment for COVID-19. Presented empirical and experimental studies, respectively, qualitative analysis for Apis Mellifera product, reveal that honey, especially dark honey, presents healing effects. People understand the healing effects of honey in the COVID-19 context, and consequently, honey consumption increased. The forecasting model of the export value, for the 2021-2040 period, takes into consideration the descriptive statistics analysis based on 2001-2020 data. The paper contains relevant data about the SMH class related to statistics of the World Bank, United Nations, Eurostat, International Trade Center, and other sources presented in the paper. Data have been processed into SPSS and Excel, according to ANOVA (descriptive statistics with a focus on frequency analysis) and forecasting analysis.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12355-023-01243-6.

Keywords: COVID-19; Consumer behavior; Honey; Honey remedies; Molasses; Mountain honey; Sugar; World trade market.