New Zealand's great honey glut

Mānuka honey producers have been reaping the profits of selling pots of gold in recent years, but now there’s a surplus of non-mānuka varieties as beekeepers stockpile, hoping prices will recover. The NZ Herald’s Jane Phare looks at why the country is oozing with honey.

Too many beehives, not enough buyers: NZ’s great honey glut

With so many New Zealand beekeepers, how will dwindling honey demand catch up with excessive supply?

www.thespinoff.co.nz

 

[frazzledfozzle]

It’s not just non manuka thats sitting in peoples sheds there’s plenty of mono manuka in there as well.

 

[tristan]

It’s not just non manuka thats sitting in peoples sheds there’s plenty of mono manuka in there as well.

aging or just hoping prices will go back up?
i wonder how many have overpaid for sites.

 

[frazzledfozzle]

aging or just hoping prices will go back up?
i wonder how many have overpaid for sites.

i Know plenty of beekeepers with 5+ mono that either can’t get any interest or are being offered really low prices .

yes I know it’s only 5+ but that same Honey was going for $20-$28 before the MPI standard.

 

[milkandhoney]

Excellent article. Not often I say that about reporting these days!

 

[NickWallingford]

I've gotta say, this quote had me doing some multiplication. Turns out it should have referenced 3,000 hives...

In the past decade commercial honey “mega enterprises” (30,000 or more hives) have increased to nearly 50 in line with the demand for mānuka honey.

 

[Dennis Crowley]

but that same Honey was going for $20-$28 before the MPI standard.

You mean before we tested the honey to make sure we weren't selling clover and kanuka as manuka?

 

[frazzledfozzle]

You mean before we tested the honey to make sure we weren't selling clover and kanuka as manuka?

don’t get me started, the MPI standard is far from perfect with more blending of honey now than there was before in our neck of the woods.

So tell me @Dennis Crowley if the MPI standard has supposedly stopped a heap of dodgy blending that would indicate to me there should be less “genuine” manuka honey for sale so prices should have improved instead of collapsing ?

If we could sell our honey for upwards of $20kg before the standard how can that same honey ( mono manuka under MPI standard ) be worth so much less if You can even get someone to look at it ?

 

[James]

don’t get me started, the MPI standard is far from perfect with more blending of honey now than there was before in our neck of the woods.

So tell me @Dennis Crowley if the MPI standard has supposedly stopped a heap of dodgy blending that would indicate to me there should be less “genuine” manuka honey for sale so prices should have improved instead of collapsing ?

If we could sell our honey for upwards of $20kg before the standard how can that same honey ( mono manuka under MPI standard ) be worth so much less if You can even get someone to look at it ?

Perhaps it's something to do with consumer resistance to a high priced product . We hear it all the time in our honey shop .....honey is so expensive , we don't buy it any more .....

Don't get me started.

If honey was so expensive , why is then that half of my bee keepers are on a community services card.... and have to wait a week with a raging tooth ache before they can see the dentist, beacuse this week the power bill is due and there aint enough in the kitty to swing the unforseen.
I got so peed off when I heard that I squeezed a hundy out of Mama for our little TAB holiday fund, and told him to put it on a horse called 'The Dentist' !

And there is the issue. The producer needs better than $4.50/kg to make better wages happen ..... and lift us all out of the poverty line.

 

[tristan]

don’t get me started, the MPI standard is far from perfect with more blending of honey now than there was before in our neck of the woods.

i saw the paper work for one batch of honey to be retailed and it had something like 40 different beeks honey in it.
a lot of science and skill to mix honey and turn it into a more profitable honey. this is where they make the money.

 

[kaihoka]

i saw the paper work for one batch of honey to be retailed and it had something like 40 different beeks honey in it.
a lot of science and skill to mix honey and turn it into a more profitable honey. this is where they make the money.

Was this a manuka blend .?
Or was it a multifloral that had been blended to make a nice honey .
Some honeys are so dominant very little would flavour the whole batch.
Does someone taste , then buy the honeys .
Are they experienced enough to be able to guess what the blend would be like .?

 

[tristan]

Was this a manuka blend .?
Or was it a multifloral that had been blended to make a nice honey .
Some honeys are so dominant very little would flavour the whole batch.
Does someone taste , then buy the honeys .
Are they experienced enough to be able to guess what the blend would be like .?

i can't recall. i would guess its manuka blend.
tho really the point being the sheer amount of different beeks honey in it. someone went to a LOT of effort to mix all that.

 

[Rob's BP]

don’t get me started, the MPI standard is far from perfect

So tell me @Dennis Crowley if the MPI standard has supposedly stopped a heap of dodgy blending that would indicate to me there should be less “genuine” manuka honey for sale so prices should have improved instead of collapsing ?

Firstly, agree about the MPI standard.
We know UMF/MGO only comes from Manuka
The highest UMF/MGO comes from unadulterated Manuka
But the highest UMF/MFO (i.e. Northland's) doesn't qualify as Mono Manuka???

But mainly I'm responding to the comment that due to MPI's definition, consumers should pay more for genuine Manuka now than before.
I've heard this since the standard was first discussed.
The reality is that consumers think now and thought before that they were getting real Manuka honey.
They were paying top dollar before the standard for Manuka, and they still are.
Top Manuka was scarce then and is scarce now.
The only real difference from having the Manuka definition is the price in non-Mono honeys has plummeted.

 

[tristan]

But the highest UMF/MFO (i.e. Northland's) doesn't qualify as Mono Manuka???

a lot of northlands doesn't even qualify as manuka !

 

[stoney]

a lot of northlands doesn't even qualify as manuka !

What is the component it mostly fails to meet the definition on?

 

[Jamo]

What is the component it mostly fails to meet the definition on?

2map, generall has plenty of 3pla from all the kanuka

 

[tristan]

2map, generall has plenty of 3pla from all the kanuka

not from kanuka because kanuka flowers at a much later date.

 

[frazzledfozzle]

The only real difference from having the Manuka definition is the price in non-Mono honeys has plummeted.

@Rob's BP not only non manuka the price and demand for 5+ manuka has plummeted as well.

 

[Maru Hoani]

@Rob's BP not only non manuka the price and demand for 5+ manuka has plummeted as well.

I got $65kg next year $42.50 and last season $31 tell me the manuka standard has helped??? My honeys always been roughly the same so why are prices plummeting???

 

[James]

Oversupply Bro. It's a bit like surfing .... you gotta ride the wave ..... Hang ten on the downward spiral and make sure your board shorts are tight when you hit the beach . Or something like that.