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Capilano Trash-talks New Zealand Manuka
The owner of Capilano, Australia's biggest-selling manuka honey brand, has launched a blistering attack on New Zealand manuka honey, throwing facts and decorum to the wind and sinking trans-Tasman honey ties to a new low.
Bruce Roscoe
Jun 24 min read


Capilano 'Did the Right Thing'
The Capilano Honey leaflet that berates New Zealand mānuka honey as inferior to Australian mānuka honey in seven categories reads as an enemy act. Yet from the viewpoint of marketers, Capilano has done the right thing.
Bruce Roscoe
Jun 22 min read


Bulk Monofloral Mānuka Honey Exports Hit Record Levels in 2024
Bulk monofloral mānuka honey exports reached a record 1,471tonnes in CY2024, an increase of 54.3% over the CY2023 volume. The United...
Bruce Roscoe
Mar 43 min read


Bulk Mānuka Honey – Should it Stay, or Should it Go?
With bulk monofloral mānuka honey exports hitting record levels in 2024, we talk to a range of honey producers, packers and exporters to...
Patrick Dawkins
Mar 47 min read


Mānuka Charitable Trust Moves Towards a New Trademark for Honey and Oil
A seemingly sidelined player in the shakeup of industry representation in recent months, the Mānuka Charitable Trust (MCT) held a...
Patrick Dawkins
Mar 44 min read


Mānuka Honey Founders Reinforce the Need for Higher Standards
Two beekeepers who were among the group of six who first sat around a table and coined the association that is now UMF share their thoughts
Patrick Dawkins
Feb 13 min read


What is Mānuka Charitable Trust’s Role in the Industry Restructure?
Mānuka Charitable Trust has been called the “national guardian” of mānuka. So, what role have they been playing in industry restructuring...
Patrick Dawkins
Jan 33 min read


Mānuka Honey: What Went Wrong? And a Road to Recovery
Mānuka honey pioneer Phil Caskey shares his vision for a better UMF™ brand and a better mānuka honey industry...
Phil Caskey
Dec 2, 202410 min read


A Hot Topic – UMF Honey Standards
A recent survey of UMF™ branded mānuka honey in China and Singapore by UMFHA returned what has been described as “an alarming number of...
Patrick Dawkins
Dec 2, 20243 min read


Learn From Chocolate, So Honey Doesn't Have to Take the Heat
Based on the experience of long hot Tokyo days and nights, Bruce Roscoe outlines the measures traders and distributors can take to protect..
Bruce Roscoe
Dec 2, 20245 min read


UMFHA Celebrates NZ Mānuka Honey Day
UMFHA explain their promotional concept "New Zealand Mānuka Honey Day", celebrated November 4...
Campbell Naish
Nov 1, 20242 min read


A Honey Industry in the Dark
Looming over a seriously depressed mānuka honey market is what has variously been described as a honey “oversupply’, “stockpile, “surplus”.
Patrick Dawkins
Oct 3, 202411 min read


The Honey in the Sheds, and the Sword of Damocles
While the New Zealand Honey industry bandies about vast ranges for potential honey inventory volumes, Bruce Roscoe explores how...
Bruce Roscoe
Oct 3, 202410 min read


Comvita’s Freeze Out Hits Honey Suppliers Hard
Where Comvita goes, many beekeepers go, and when they cancelled supply contracts with beekeepers in 2021-22 it sent some out of business...
Patrick Dawkins
Oct 3, 20245 min read


UMFHA Terminate “Detracting” Licence Holders
As the mānuka honey price pinch tightens, 26 now former the UMFHA licence holders have had their ability to use the UMF brand revoked...
Patrick Dawkins
Sep 2, 20243 min read


Straining the Alphabet Soup
A short history of the various rating systems for mānuka honey:
TA / NPA / UMF / MGO / MG / MGS / AAH / Pollen Percentage / KFactor / MQS.
Bruce Roscoe
Sep 2, 202410 min read


The Landmine Landscape of Honey Company Mergers and Acquisitions
Writer, former securities analyst, and honey trader Bruce Roscoe reviews the 'landmine landscape' of an industry where investors fear to...
Bruce Roscoe
Aug 2, 202413 min read


UMF Mānuka Honey: Made in Japan
A recent misstep from a UMFHA member which allowed Japanese filling of honey bags brings the Association’s rules under scrutiny...
Patrick Dawkins
Aug 2, 20247 min read


The Pragmatic Beekeeper
This spring is the first for 26 years that Tauranga beekeeper Dennis Crowley will not be in the business of bees. We take a look back...
Patrick Dawkins
Sep 1, 202311 min read


Anger and Frustration in Northland at Mānuka Honey Reassessment
Northland beekeepers are angry and frustrated over what they see as a drawn-out and “secretive” process which lacked Māori involvement...
Patrick Dawkins
Jul 3, 20238 min read
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