Shareholder value represents the net asset value of a company. Between June 2024 and June 2025, Comvita erased NZD183.6m of that value. Bruce Roscoe explains Comvita’s application of the accounting standard that caused most of the destruction. He also questions the method used to revalue assets.

The latest in industry group New Zealand Beekeeping Inc’s (NZBI) ‘roundtable’ meetings was held online on September 17 in an attempt to progress beekeeper thinking towards a more enticing national group to represent their interests. While a “strawman” constitution was presented, the video-call proved more an insight into the limitations that for years have driven beekeepers from taking up membership in any industry body en mass.

The newly named and independently governed New Zealand Bee Health and Biosecurity (NZBB) Trust has taken its next tentative step towards an expanded remit, asking beekeepers to weigh in on whether the former American Foulbrood (AFB) Management Agency should take on a greater responsibility regarding ‘general honey bee health and disease management’, including biosecurity preparedness.

This is a companion article to Comvita, UMFHA & the Australian Question which appeared in our September edition. Here, Bruce Roscoe finds similarities as stark as differences in the Australian and New Zealand honey industries. Though at times portrayed as hostile, Australia represents an indispensable market, ranking as New Zealand’s fourth-largest customer for honey (all types) and largest by far buyer of retail pack non-manuka honey.

As the group tasked with protecting mānuka honey from offshore exploitation continues its work, a Mānuka Charitable Trust Symposium to reaffirm their position was held on September 26.

Miss Bumby’s Mission is a work of historical fiction, told first-person perspective by the eponymous character. Mary Anna Bumby (1811–1862), was a Yorkshire woman who accompanied her brother John Bumby to New Zealand. Mr Bumby was one of the early Wesleyan missionaries to the Māori, arriving in 1839 and settling in the Hokianga region of Northland.

Many people have been asking Ian Fletcher about Gaza. So, this is an effort to look through the fog of war and misinformation, and see the shape of what’s going on.

Dearth September. Admittedly a slower start than last year, but all of our hives have been boosted into action with regular manipulation and feeding. Frames of honey and pollen are added to simulate an early flow, and with the changing of the clocks, the real thing can’t be far behind.

Kiwifruit cooperative Zespri wants beekeepers, especially those who might be auditing hives for pollination, to ‘elevate’ their skills and they are offering the training to make it happen.

Building on Ian Fletcher’s Revitalising Bee Science column last month imploring New Zealand’s apiculture industry to better promote its value to environment and economy, Dave Black casts his gaze wide – from the history of honey bees on these shores to modern global conventions which could provide the pathway beekeepers and scientists seek to advance bee research and support.

Appalled by the perceived “deception” of the American Foulbrood (AFB) Pest Management Plan Agency’s move to establish itself as a Trust just a few months ago, Bay of Plenty Beekeeper Jody Mitchell now calls herself a trustee of that group – New Zealand Bee Health and Biosecurity (NZBB) – along with Mānuka Health national apiculture strategy manager Brian McCall.

Comvita Ltd is almost certain to become wholly owned by Florenz Ltd and delisted from the New Zealand Exchange. Florenz Ltd owns Wedderspoon Organic NZ Ltd, said to be New Zealand’s largest seller of mānuka honey in the US. If the acquisition proceeds, about half of total monofloral mānuka honey exports will fall under the control of a company that operates outside the sphere of influence of the UMF Honey Association.