[Honeyeater]

An article here on the ongoing dispute between Aussie beekeepers and the New Zealand government about the name Manuka honey.

The NZ gov is rightly so protecting its interests and beekeepers while my fellow Aussie beekeepers are too lazy to market our own Marri and Jarrah honeys that are even better than Manuka.

 

[Oldtimer]

Interesting article Honeyeater.

As a Kiwi and a manuka honey producer, my main issue with Aussies calling their honey manuka, is that in NZ we only have one species of leptospermum, but in Australia you have (from memory), 27 species.

Because of that, what Australia is selling as manuka honey, can taste very different from the honey that NZ sells, and has spent many years and many millions of dollars on research, development, and establishing the brand. What Australia is selling is a different honey, and in my view is damaging the manuka brand.

Also, here in NZ any manuka honey sold internationally has to be laboratory analysed to verify it's purity, but there are no standards at all in Australia, so Australian beekeepers can call any honey they like Manuka and send it overseas, this may also end up damaging the brand, and might account for the wide variation in tastes.

My own view is that Australia produces some very good honeys, but they should go back to calling them whatever they called them, before NZ established our Manuka honey as a high end product. Australia might do better for the beekeeping industry as a whole, to do their own research and development and marketing of their own unique honeys, and market their high end products under Australian names rather than a Maori name, and could broaden the world wide perception of honey in general, which would be good for us all.

 

[Honeyeater]

I do agree with you oldtimer. There have been some studies done on our own Marri and Jarrah honeys in western oz and found they have even stronger antimicrobial properties than Manuka. I don’t want to engage in “ours is better than yours” because that is stupid, but my point is that we should do our own research and marketing and sell our honey on its strengths rather than ride on others’ efforts.

We are starting to do that but are still decades behind.

I’m just an amateur beekeeper with a couple of hives in my semi urban backyard and am lucky enough that my summer crop is Marri honey because that’s the only tree in flower. My spring flow on the other hand is contaminated with glyphosate sprayed weeds like Patterson’s Curse which produces toxic honey. Oh well.....

 

[Oldtimer]

Agreed, in my view Jarrah in particular could be a very valuable honey, marketed properly. The net benefit to the beekeeping industry, worldwide, would be more, if there were more honeys seen as very high value. There would then be a flow on effect to honey in general. Most beekeepers in the world are struggling against low prices, and fake or adulterated products. Australia, in my view, has the potential if they play their cards right, to turn their beekeepers into a major export earner.