No money in honey now

[ladaok]

Hello there, and greetings from Nouvelle Zelande

Well, we had a Micky Mouse spring, ( in the Bay of Plenty ) and it has continued on through to mid summer. 50 odd days and NO rain ! Very poor nectar flow and increasing Queen deaths with eventual hive collapse ... and yes, you could say that's poor bking, but when you have 14 sites with numerous hives ...I simply don't have the time to sort, esp when lots of other daily junk eats out the plan

With the collapse of the ' Manuka honey ' market, my pastoral honey is now almost valueless ( valueless because honey packers are NO longer allowed to adulterate rubbishy crap Manuka honey with my and others pastoral honey to make it even worse ) ...probably about one £ / Kg ...so I am thinking , would there be a market for >>> NZ honey in GB ? <<<< any leads appreciated

The NZ Gov had to clamp down with very stringent rules relating to the bulldust 'Manuka ' honey crap you or others might be tempted to purchase, being a mostly agricultural based exporter, there was no room for any chance of smearing our other top grade ag exports with tis bullsh.. honey

Queen deaths ...possibly too old a comb or use of a new wasp poison ( lots of bk's are closing up hives for 2 days then laying wasp bait , so if you happen to be in the flight path ...wham oh

And good clover honey has a UMF ( Unique Manuka Factor ) of THREE ! hahaha

 

[enrico]

To be honest, we are proud of our honey and don't want your cheap imports any more than you would want ours. Your Manuka honey was a con from beginning to end and did little to help our own market.
That is my humble opinion. Sorry!
E

 

[Anduril]

If you had unusual monofloral honey, there could be a market almost anywhere, clover honey is usually bought in bulk by Gales or Rowse.

 

[mbc]

Hello there, and greetings from Nouvelle Zelande

Well, we had a Micky Mouse spring, ( in the Bay of Plenty ) and it has continued on through to mid summer. 50 odd days and NO rain ! Very poor nectar flow and increasing Queen deaths with eventual hive collapse ... and yes, you could say that's poor bking, but when you have 14 sites with numerous hives ...I simply don't have the time to sort, esp when lots of other daily junk eats out the plan

With the collapse of the ' Manuka honey ' market, my pastoral honey is now almost valueless ( valueless because honey packers are NO longer allowed to adulterate rubbishy crap Manuka honey with my and others pastoral honey to make it even worse ) ...probably about one £ / Kg ...so I am thinking , would there be a market for >>> NZ honey in GB ? <<<< any leads appreciated

The NZ Gov had to clamp down with very stringent rules relating to the bulldust 'Manuka ' honey crap you or others might be tempted to purchase, being a mostly agricultural based exporter, there was no room for any chance of smearing our other top grade ag exports with tis bullsh.. honey

Queen deaths ...possibly too old a comb or use of a new wasp poison ( lots of bk's are closing up hives for 2 days then laying wasp bait , so if you happen to be in the flight path ...wham oh

And good clover honey has a UMF ( Unique Manuka Factor ) of THREE ! hahaha

Sorry to hear that, lucky you've already made your money from kiwi fruit pollination or times would be hard bro!
I always thought rewarewa was the choice honey I tasted in NZ ( beats the pants off Manuka or conika) and there should be a market for that with honey connoisseurs worldwide imho.

 

[citrus]

just used some Thyme honey we bought in NZ ( south island) that I found in back of the cupboard ....

doesnt work in porridge but does a nice job on parsnips !

 

[Antipodes]

ladaok, my immediate thought is that it might be costly to transport the honey to the UK, which would have to be covered somehow I suppose. I've never seen any UK honey here for sale (even though I reckon the unique Heather honey would sell well), and I've always assumed it is a transport cost issue.

 

[enrico]

ladaok, my immediate thought is that it might be costly to transport the honey to the UK, which would have to be covered somehow I suppose. I've never seen any UK honey here for sale (even though I reckon the unique Heather honey would sell well), and I've always assumed it is a transport cost issue.

I have a feeling we are not allowed to export honey out there. Certainly not allowed to take it in with you personally if you visit! Probably wrong but I am sure others will have knowledge.
E

 

[ericbeaumont]

The NZbees Forum has 29 pages on Honey Price Collapse, and stuff.co.nz/business brought me up to speed on Govt. intervention in the NZ honey industry.
Comments at the end of the piece were instructive:

We saw it with kiwifruit. We've seen it with dairying. We're seeing it with honey. Everyone (who can afford to) rushes in to cash in, not realising - until too late - that a glut in production compromises the returns.

Typical NZ way of doing things. Boom bust mentality. Something gets good and makes money everyone dives into it and kills the price completely and gluts the market. We have a string of agricultural products that this has happened to, eg kiwifruit, dairy.

It is a mistake to link the scientifically proven qualities of manuka honey with the corporate fortunes of Comvita et al.

Every growing horticulture industry goes through these cycles as the product moves from a high price specialist crop from a handful of providers to a mainstream item. This is not surprising and eventually honey will find its equilibrium.

NZ Clover is on sale in Waitrose and M&S and Tesco, and on Amazon by the NZ Honey Company, Happy Valley, and any number of smaller UK outlets such as that and this.

 

[Repwoc]

NZ Clover is on sale in Waitrose and M&S and Tesco, and on Amazon by the NZ Honey Company, Happy Valley, and any number of smaller UK outlets such as that and this.

Prices aren't bad - especially the Happy Valley stuff at £86 / kg.

 

[drex]

I have a feeling we are not allowed to export honey out there. Certainly not allowed to take it in with you personally if you visit! Probably wrong but I am sure others will have knowledge.
E

I gave my ex some honey, but not liking honey she decided to take it when she visited our daughter in NZ, without telling me. She had the honey confiscated and was fined £70. I could have told her.

 

[ladaok]

To be honest, we are proud of our honey and don't want your cheap imports any more than you would want ours. Your Manuka honey was a con from beginning to end and did little to help our own market.
That is my humble opinion. Sorry!
E

* We are proud of our honey too, native and pastoral although I don't hanker for the taste of Manuka at all, along with many others ..... I have photos of old timers in the pre Manuka craze , washing Manuka honey from frames in a creek !

* The Manuka honey craze as you point out was a total scam and hoax, ...not sure how it affected your honey market, ...me thinks it would be cheap Chinese bulldust syrup posing as ' honey '

* And NO, you have more chance of getting honey into NZ ....as getting butter up a wild cats arse with a red hot spoon ....

* What's unbearably annoying is that animal disease and pests are imported to NZ by none other than our stupid ignorant and greedy citizens

 

[ladaok]

The NZbees Forum has 29 pages on Honey Price Collapse, and stuff.co.nz/business brought me up to speed on Govt. intervention in the NZ honey industry.
Comments at the end of the piece were instructive:

We saw it with kiwifruit. We've seen it with dairying. We're seeing it with honey. Everyone (who can afford to) rushes in to cash in, not realising - until too late - that a glut in production compromises the returns.

Typical NZ way of doing things. Boom bust mentality. Something gets good and makes money everyone dives into it and kills the price completely and gluts the market. We have a string of agricultural products that this has happened to, eg kiwifruit, dairy.

It is a mistake to link the scientifically proven qualities of manuka honey with the corporate fortunes of Comvita et al.

Every growing horticulture industry goes through these cycles as the product moves from a high price specialist crop from a handful of providers to a mainstream item. This is not surprising and eventually honey will find its equilibrium.

NZ Clover is on sale in Waitrose and M&S and Tesco, and on Amazon by the NZ Honey Company, Happy Valley, and any number of smaller UK outlets such as that and this.

Thanks Eric ...good piece of detective work, and very true for not only NZ, but other countries

I would like to see undisputed clinical results with Manuka honey as a antibacterial skin treatment V other compounds ...by a totally independent test facility .... as I understand, the previous testing relied on a UMF of sky high proportions which matched the price / Kg of $ 1000 odd
Oral consumption of Manuka honey with a high UMF may and can cause gut problems

Thanks for the info on Co carrying NZ product

 

[Erichalfbee]

Oral consumption of Manuka honey with a high UMF may and can cause gut problems

And according to this source the active ingredient doesn’t survive the digestive process either.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/21sD2l323f9hzdfM7Smw9B4/is-manuka-honey-worth-the-money

 

[Ian123]

I’ll go and read the forum Paul posted but can’t say I’ve seen a reduction in Manuka prices on the supermarket shelves yet. I’ve got to say I think high Manuka prices have been a good thing it’s got joe blogs used to seeing honey at £10-£20 for a jar it makes good uk honey look reasonable!!

 

[ericbeaumont]

There are reports on assessment of manuka as a wound dressing and as an antibacterial skin treatment, the sort of evidence that made manuka the medical success it is. Can't recall tasting much manuka, but found at the back of a cupboard an unfinished jar of Sainsbury's 10+ my partner bought fifteen years ago (on a whim after hearing of its 'benefits'). Tasted like marshmallow and burnt wood; are you sure it's meant to be eaten?

I read (not that long ago, maybe in Cliff Van Eaton's Manuka: the biography of an extraordinary Honey) that years ago manuka spoiled the purity of the traditional NZ clover crop, and at one time beekeepers would dump manuka or use it as winter feed. Once the medical research was accepted the genie was out of the bottle, but as the market for consumption will always be greater than that for medicine, the opportunity to make a quick buck took over.

 

[ericbeaumont]

I’ve got to say I think high Manuka prices have been a good thing it’s got joe blogs used to seeing honey at £10-£20 for a jar it makes good uk honey look reasonable!!

Valid point, Ian. Customers often ask about the benefits of manuka and after mentioning the positive medical uses, I suggest that no matter how magical its (debatable) edible properties, transporting honey 11,500 miles is an unjustifiable use of fossil fuels.

 

[Angularity]

* The Manuka honey craze as you point out was a total scam and hoax, ...not sure how it affected your honey market, ...me thinks it would be cheap Chinese bulldust syrup posing as ' honey '

Methinks we won't be importing much Chinese honey over the next couple of years. Unless they can filter it to guarantee it's virus-free (I mean really filter it, not just apply a sticker saying they have filtered it).

 

[ericbeaumont]

According to nhs.uk: infection of imported food highly unlikely.
German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment: infection unlikely.
Another view: British man claims whisky and honey cured his coronavirus infection.

The big UK buyers of Chinese honey (perhaps Rowse and Gale's) pasteurise honey routinely, and the virus is sensitive to heat, as this Chinese website states: The virus is sensitive to heat and can effectively inactivate the virus when it reaches a temperature of 56 ° C for 30 minutes. Honey pasteurisation is achieved by heating to 63C for 30 minutes.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

* And NO, you have more chance of getting honey into NZ ....as getting butter up a wild cats arse with a red hot spoon ....

There's a challenge for any beekeeper who is at a loose end and waiting 'till Spring to open up their hives.

 

[Hachi]

Methinks we won't be importing much Chinese honey over the next couple of years. Unless they can filter it to guarantee it's virus-free (I mean really filter it, not just apply a sticker saying they have filtered it).

Isn't one of the challenges for the western world to find a test that is accurate, quick and effective when testing honey from far flung parts?? Not having one is partly why we're in this mess in the first place?

The second is I understand, that the UK is not self sufficient in Honey production.

The third is the UK manufacturers [ie us] not agreeing on a minimum price per oz/lb of our product. A strange one when we're exposed to this sort of thing daily and willingly pay for the privilege too.