Bottega Nord AS · Norway
Honey with an origin you can prove.
We are a Norwegian trading house with our own production in two places — Norway and Lithuania. We keep those two origins in separate lanes, from hive to pallet, and we document every lot so that the answer to “where is this honey from?” is a file, not an assurance.
What we supply
Three ways to buy, one standard of evidence.
Whether you are filling a blending tank, launching a supermarket own-label, or listing a jar under our own name, the provenance file behind it is the same.
Bulk
Drums and IBCs of single-origin honey for packers, bakeries, confectioners and food manufacturers. Sold by origin and by lot — we will not offer you a tank of “blend of EU and non-EU honeys” and call it a specification.
Private label
We pack to your brand in our own facility, to your jar, closure and label format. Artwork is built to the current EU origin-labelling rules, which means it also satisfies the markets that have not adopted them yet.
Retail, our brands
Jarred honey under Norwegian Honey House, our consumer brand, for retailers and distributors who want a Nordic story with the documentation to stand behind it.
Bee products
Propolis, pollen, royal jelly and beeswax, from the same hives and the same records. These travel on a different regulatory track from honey in several of our markets, and we plan the paperwork accordingly rather than discovering it at the border.
Other foods
Extra virgin olive oil from Italy and Greece is our second line — see below. Where a customer asks us to source beyond our own production, we say so plainly on the offer. Traded goods are never presented as our own.
Two origins
One company, two production lanes, kept apart on purpose.
Most of the honey trade's problems start where lots are combined. Ours are not. Norwegian honey and Lithuanian honey are produced, stored, packed and documented separately, and they are sold as what they are.
Origin one · Norway
Viken Bigard
Our own apiary in Norway — a named, visitable bee farm, not an anonymous collection point. Norwegian honey is a short-season, limited-volume product, and we treat it that way: it is allocated, not stockpiled.
- Country of origin
- Norway
- Apiary
- Viken Bigard Ardavicius
- Primary markets
- Norway, UAE, United Kingdom
- Customs status
- Norwegian preferential origin available
Origin two · Lithuania
Our Lithuanian production
Our own hives inside the European Union, giving us EU-origin honey in volumes that Norway alone cannot support — and an EU home for the lots destined for European customers.
- Country of origin
- Lithuania
- Status
- European Union origin
- Primary markets
- European Union, United Kingdom
- Customs status
- In free circulation within the EU
The separation pledge
We do not blend our Norwegian and Lithuanian honey with each other, and we do not blend either of them with bought-in honey. Each lot carries one origin on its documentation because it carries one origin in the tank. If a customer asks us for a blend, we will quote it as a blend, name every country in it, and say so on the label — which is now what European law requires in any case.
The provenance programme
Six tests, every production lot.
In 2023 the European Commission published the results of its coordinated action “From the Hives”, in which 46% of the imported honey samples examined were suspected of not complying with the Honey Directive. That is the environment every honey buyer is working in. Our answer is a fixed test panel, run on every lot, with the certificates released alongside the goods.
Pollen analysis
Microscopic examination of the pollen spectrum to confirm the botanical and geographic picture of the lot is consistent with where we say it was produced.
Stable carbon isotopes
Isotope-ratio mass spectrometry for added C4 sugars — the classic cane and corn syrup adulteration. Necessary, but on its own not sufficient, which is why it is one of six.
NMR profiling
Nuclear magnetic resonance screening against reference databases, which picks up syrup types and manipulations that isotope testing alone does not.
HMF and diastase
Hydroxymethylfurfural and diastase activity: the two indicators of whether a honey has been overheated or held too long. Freshness, measured rather than claimed.
Moisture and composition
Water content, sugar profile, electrical conductivity and free acidity against the Honey Directive criteria — the numbers that decide whether a lot keeps or ferments.
Residues
Screening for veterinary medicine residues and pesticides, including the antimicrobial controls that now apply to imports of products of animal origin into the European Union.
Retention samples
We keep a sealed retention sample of every production lot. If a question about a delivery arises after it has left us — from a customer, an authority or a laboratory — there is something physical to go back to, tied to the same lot number that appears on the jar, the pallet and the certificate.
| Parameter | Directive limit | Our release limit | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moisture | ≤ 20 g/100 g | ≤ 18.5 g/100 g | Above roughly 18–19%, honey is at risk of fermenting in the jar. |
| HMF at packing | ≤ 40 mg/kg | ≤ 15 mg/kg | Rises with heat and with age. A low figure at packing is what gives the product its shelf life. |
| Diastase activity | ≥ 8 DN | ≥ 8 DN | Enzyme activity falls with heat treatment; it is the counterpart check to HMF. |
| Fructose + glucose | ≥ 60 g/100 g | ≥ 60 g/100 g | Blossom honey. Honeydew honey is assessed against its own criterion. |
| Sucrose | ≤ 5 g/100 g | ≤ 5 g/100 g | A high figure points to immature honey or to feeding. |
| Water-insoluble solids | ≤ 0.1 g/100 g | ≤ 0.1 g/100 g | Cleanliness of extraction and straining. |
| Free acid | ≤ 50 meq/kg | ≤ 50 meq/kg | Elevated acidity is an early sign of fermentation. |
| Added sugars | Not permitted | Not detected | Tested by isotope ratio and by NMR, not assumed. |
Second line
Extra virgin olive oil, Italy and Greece.
Olive oil is the other category where origin is routinely claimed and rarely evidenced. We approach it the way we approach honey: named groves, a declared harvest, a lot number, and analysis on file before the oil is offered.
How we buy it
We source from Italian and Greek producers we have visited, contracting by harvest rather than buying spot from a broker. Each lot is bought with its own certificate of analysis and its own origin declaration, and it stays identified as that lot through storage and filling.
As with honey, we do not create house blends across countries and sell them under a single flag. If a product is a blend of oils of more than one origin, it is labelled as exactly that.
What we check
- Free acidityNot more than 0.8 g per 100 g, expressed as oleic acid — the threshold that separates extra virgin from virgin.
- Peroxide valueNot more than 20 milliequivalents of active oxygen per kilogram, as a measure of early oxidation.
- UV absorbanceK232, K268 and ΔK, which reveal refining and oxidation that taste alone can miss.
- Organoleptic panelA recognised tasting panel — the extra virgin grade is defined partly by sensory assessment, not chemistry alone.
- Harvest and lotCrop year and lot number declared on the offer and printed on the pack.
Four markets
We plan the paperwork before the pallet moves.
Honey sits outside the agricultural chapters covered by the EEA Agreement, and bee products do not always travel on the same track as honey. Here is how we handle each market, stated as what we do rather than as a badge we have collected.
Norway
- Home market and the seat of the company; Norwegian honey is produced at our own apiary.
- Food business operations conducted under Norwegian food law and the oversight of Mattilsynet.
- Labels carry the Norwegian particulars alongside the origin declaration.
- We do not import honey into Norway outside an applicable tariff quota — the out-of-quota duty makes it commercially meaningless, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.
United Kingdom
- We supply UK customers on terms where a UK-established importer of record and IPAFFS notifier is in place — usually the buyer, and we set that out in the contract before shipping.
- Honey and the other bee products are handled as the separate categories that the UK border model treats them as, including where a certificate and a border control post entry are required.
- Labels are prepared to the GB particulars, including the responsible food business operator address.
- Pre-notification and documentation packs are prepared in advance of dispatch, not on arrival.
European Union
- Served from our Lithuanian production, which is EU origin and already in free circulation.
- Retail packs name an EU-established food business operator, as the EU food information rules require.
- All artwork is built to the origin-labelling rules that took effect across the EU in June 2026: every country of origin, on the front of pack, in descending order, with percentages.
- Residue and contaminant controls are run against the EU limits current at the time of dispatch.
United Arab Emirates
- Served from the Norwegian lane, where genuine Norwegian origin can be certified.
- Movement certificates are obtained from the Norwegian customs authority where preferential origin applies under the EFTA–GCC agreement.
- Export documentation is assembled to the importing authority's requirements and confirmed with the consignee before shipment.
- Arabic labelling is prepared alongside the English, not bolted on at the port.
The company
Bottega Nord AS
A Norwegian aksjeselskap and the trading house of the group. Bottega Nord holds the customer relationships, the contracts and the compliance responsibility; production and brands sit beneath it.
Bottega Nord AS
Parent trading house, registered in Norway. Contracts, customers, compliance.
Viken Bigard Ardavicius
Our own bee farm in Norway — the apiary behind the Norwegian origin lane.
Norwegian Honey House
Our consumer honey brand for retail and foodservice.
Lithuanian production
Our own hives within the European Union, serving the EU origin lane.
Contact
Tell us what you need and in which market.
The fastest route to a useful answer is the origin, the volume, the format and the destination. We will come back with a specification, an indicative price and the documentation route.
Telephone
United Kingdom 020 3947 2948
Norway +47 450 70 024
Registered office
Bottega Nord AS
Norway
Org. nr. 936 536 662
Administrative office
7 Westmoreland House
Scrubs Lane
London NW10 6RE
United Kingdom