Australian Attack "Disrespectful and Misleading", Says Mānuka Charitable Trust

With a blatant assault on New Zealand’s manuka honey industry being delivered by a leading Australian honey seller recently – as detailed in Capilano Trash-talks New Zealand Mānuka – we seek out an explanation from Capilano and get the reaction from a miffed honey industry on New Zealand’s side of the Tasman who are calling it “absolute nonsense”, “cultural appropriation” and “PR nonsense … with so little of substance”. However, an awkward truth overshadows this war of words.

In New Zealand the cries of “thieves” towards Australia are nothing new, with both countries light-heartedly jostling for ownership of ‘national treasures’ through the years, on subjects as varied as race horses, desserts and popular musicians. Of a more serious nature is ‘ownership’ of the mānuka tree – seen by Māori as a ‘taonga’ or ‘treasure’ of their people – and the associated mānuka honey, which accounted for NZD387million of New Zealand’s NZD414million export honey industry in 2024.

New Zealand and Australian manuka honey sellers have been trading blows for years in a fight for customers and legal control of the term ‘manuka honey’, but recent marketing from Australia’s Capilano Honey is far more direct in its attack.

Consumers the world over have been provided honey labelled as ‘mānuka’ or ‘manuka’ (with or without the macron, depending on the country of origin) from both New Zealand and Australia respectively for well over a decade now. Trademark claims have been filed by New Zealand producers, and defeated by Australian, in numerous key markets in that time.

A ‘negative marketing’ approach – where a product considered a competitor is portrayed in a negative fashion – as blatant as on Capilano’s marketing material at a Canadian tradeshow April 26-27 is unusual from manuka honey sellers on either side of the Tasman. The use of factually incorrect selling points is a figurative punch in the direction of New Zealand mānuka honey.

“Disrespectful Appropriation”

“Capilano makes claims that, in the Trust’s view, deliberately undermine the authenticity, cultural significance, and scientific uniqueness of honey derived from Mānuka located in Aotearoa New Zealand – a native species of deep significance to Māori and found only in Aotearoa,” reads a statement from the organisation now tasked with leading New Zealand’s legal fight to protect mānuka, the Mānuka Charitable Trust (MCT).

“We are concerned that marketing materials misrepresent both the origin and the identity of authentic products derived from Mānuka and it is inappropriate and misleading,” Trust chair Victor Goldsmith adds.

The cultural significance of the mānuka plant and the word ‘mānuka’ have been at the core of efforts to trademark the name, which have failed in various jurisdictions around the world – including in New Zealand. Despite those failures, MCT remains strong in their desire to protect Māori culture from use by the likes of Capilano.

“The Trust believes using the term ‘Mānuka’ in Australian marketing is not only misleading - it is a form of cultural appropriation and a challenge to the principles of fair trade and informed consumer choice,” they state.

“Absolute Nonsense”, “Completely False”

Equally as explicit in their response to the Capilano attack is leading New Zealand honey packaging supplier Pharmapac, who called Capilano a customer for a decade, until as recently as 2023. Their connections on both sides of the Tasman provide an understanding of where the major manuka honey exporters in the two countries source their packaging.

“What they are saying is absolute nonsense,” Pharmapac director Brett Hopwood says of the Capilano claims that New Zealand mānuka honey is traditionally sold in non-recyclable PET jars.

“All the PET manufactured in New Zealand is recyclable in one way or another.”

The ‘amber’ coloured PET jars frequently used in mānuka honey packaging are typically recycled into the textile industry, while clear PET goes back into food grade, Pharmapac explains.

“PET has always been recycled and there is a huge market for it around the world,” sales manager Mike Jones says.

Further highlighting the shaky position from which Capilano’s claims are made, images of Australia manuka honey on Capilano’s website still feature Pharmapac-supplied packaging the supplier says.

Disparaging Bee Health

On seeing the Capilano leaflet and its unsubstantiated claims that “New Zealand doesn’t have the floral diversity to keep bees as healthy as those in Australia”, industry body Apiculture New Zealand (ApiNZ) points out “this type of promotion is a reminder to our industry of the threat from others to undermine the success New Zealand has achieved”. An ApiNZ statement on the issue also reinforced "the New Zealand apiculture industry takes the health of its honey bees very seriously”.

Comvita, a long-time leader in the New Zealand mānuka honey industry in production and sales, responded to Capilano’s claims, stating “New Zealand’s environmental and bee welfare standards are amongst the best in the world and consumers seek out New Zealand mānuka honey specifically for its health benefits and delicious taste, to suggest otherwise is entirely misleading”.

‘Same Old Story’ Says UMFHA

While certain areas of New Zealand’s honey industry have returned vociferous rebukes to Capilano’s attack, leading mānuka honey exporters have been muted by comparison. Several passed the burden of response to the Unique Mānuka Factor Honey Association (UMFHA), which licenses the UMF™ brand and claims to represent “nearly 70%” of all packed mānuka honey exports from New Zealand.

UMFHA CEO Tony Wright and marketing manager Campbell Naish say they are used to jabs coming from across the Tasman and while the latest from Capilano may be more direct, it still carries little weight in their eyes.

“It is a physical manifestation of what has existed for some time. Nothing has changed. It is the same old story, trotted out over again, with plastic jars added to it,” Wright says of the leaflet.

“We have a printed piece of paper with what they have been trying to sell through the media, through their website, and I’m sure their sales spiels are very similar. So, we know the impact this is having,” Naish says.

That impact is very light according to UMFHA, with Naish claiming that – as per their data gained from a third-party supplier – there are very few markets where Australian honey is gaining increased market share over New Zealand. One country sits as an outlier though – Canada. There, Australia has gained manuka honey market share and increased their value of returns, making it unsurprising that a Vancouver-based expo was the site of the aggressive approach.

“If you look at the last five or six years, it is not a market that has been of interest to New Zealand mānuka honey sellers. I suspect, they have seen an opportunity there,” Naish says.

Capilano Honey is a brand of Hive and Wellness Australia, whose CEO Ben McKee says, despite a recent marketing attack against New Zealand mānuka honey, there is no larger negative marketing campaign.

Jab and … Step Back?

Asked about the approach, Ben McKee, CEO of Hive and Wellness Australia – which owns Capilano as one of several honey brands in its stable – sought to downplay the campaign, saying only “around 100” copies of the leaflet were distributed. With a post show info package from the CHFA (Canadian Health Food Association) NOW Natural Organic Wellness Trade Show stating more than 3000 people attended the expo, a distribution of 100 would mean only a paltry 3%, or thereabouts, of attendees received the leaflet.

Further seeking to minimise his company’s approach McKee’s response even deemed New Zealand mānuka honey “a world class product”, despite his brand’s marketing material disparaging the product on almost all levels, from the health of the bees that produce it, the taste of the honey itself, and the sustainability and convenience of its packaging.

“We often get asked about our perspective on the advantages of Australian manuka honey and this document sought to provide this in a simple way. The flyer is being updated for future use and the section you refer to has been amended,” McKee says.

How it is being “amended” McKee did not say, but added there is no ongoing and wider agenda of negative marketing towards New Zealand mānuka honey.

Comvita has frequently used the tag line ‘Share Nature. Share Life’ and their decade-long joint venture, Medibee Apiaries, with Australia’s Capilano Honey is a tacit sharing of manuka honey with another country.

The Awkward Truth

In marketing efforts and courts of law a war of words has raged for years between ‘Anzac’ manuka honey producers. Surrounding this struggle for supremacy has been a cosiness between the two biggest exporters from each country. They have been in business together since 2016, and still may be, depending on which side you ask.

Medibee Apiaries is a joint venture, established with equal shares between Capilano and Comvita “to deliver premium honey for a range of medical and natural health products”, as per a March 2016 press release from Comvita ominously titled ‘Share Nature, Share Life’.

That press release is careful not to mention the word ‘manuka’, but is more than comfortable in equating the two company’s honey production in saying “Comvita and Capilano each market honey and manage apiary operations that produce Leptospermum honey”. Comvita further conflates honey from the two countries separated by 1500 kilometres by admitting “Comvita currently operates in Australia in a sales and marketing capacity and this joint venture will secure greater volumes of Leptospermum honey to be processed in Australia, to meet a growing global sales demand”.

Back then Capilano was publicly listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, but it has since found private owners and while claiming to be “100% Pure Australian Honey” it sits in a stable of brands which unabashedly possess imported honey, including a ‘New Zealand Active Manuka’ brand. “Pasture honey” is also imported from New Zealand the CEO says.

The trade in bulk mānuka honey from New Zealand to Australia is ongoing, but annual totals are sporadic. The combined annual totals of 'monofloral' and 'multifloral' mānuka exports across the Tasman have ranged from lows of around 24tonne (last year and in 2019) to over 100 tonnes in the first year of the definitions, 2018. What product the honey ends up in, and to what standard, is out of the control of the greater New Zealand honey industry.

Barnes Natural honey sits in the Hive and Wellness Australia stable of brands alongside Capilano and includes both ‘New Zealand’ and ‘Australian’ manuka honey varieties.

Both partners in Medibee Apiaries have been asked if they trade in New Zealand mānuka honey with one another, but have failed to answer at time of publishing. Beyond that, a question as to whether Capilano and Comvita are still bedfellows in their Medibee Apiaries venture exists.

From the top office at Hive and Wellness Australia, McKee answers in not uncertain words “Comvita continues to be part of the 50:50 Joint-Venture, as has been the case since inception in 2016”. However, Comvita publicly announced in July last year “a decision to exit from its legacy Medibee joint venture in Australia, at a total cost of $6.9million”.

The most recent financial statements put Medibee Apiaries on Comvita’s books though, despite their chief marketing officer Monica Yianakis calling the JV “historic” when the company was questioned on the matter.

“We are exiting this arrangement and are not actively involved in its business,” Yianakis says, but Comvita has failed to provide specifics on when the “exiting” will be complete.

Comvita and Capilano – bedfellows, or sleeping in separate rooms? Where the truth lies remains unclear.

Diversionary Tactics

While Comvita have comfortably muddied the waters as to what is and isn’t manuka honey in regards to Australia’s “Leptospermum” honey production in order to grow their business alongside Australia’s biggest manuka honey company, the group they contribute considerable funding to through UMF licensing fees continues a broader educational programme to tackle any Australian challenge.

“The only thing we need to be asking is, is Australian manuka honey the same as New Zealand? Everything else is peripheral,” Naish says of the latest Capilano marketing approach.

The UMFHA marketing manager says, while Australian manuka honey – and he doesn’t like to call it that – is not a big part of his groups’ and its members' thinking on a day-to-day basis, they do keep a “watching brief” over activity coming from the other side of the Tasman. It also means continually seeking to educate about what true mānuka honey is, which UMFHA say has been core to the marketing group’s efforts for the past decade.

“We are not ignoring the challenges presented by the Australians and the stories they tell in the markets, but it is not the most urgent thing to do,” Wright says.

“The most urgent thing to do is to educate consumers in the first place on what mānuka is. That isn’t helped by a confusing story coming out of Australia trying to represent 85 different species of Leptospermum as being manuka. Solving the most important problem actually helps solve this problem.”

Despite UMFHA’s position of leadership in New Zealand honey exporting, the CEO knows solving the “problem” of a lack of consumer awareness and knowledge around mānuka honey – and with it the Capilano and Australian threat – will take a community.

“We have first-mover advantage. We are clearly the authentic product. We need to consolidate that position and build on it,” Wright says.

“Whether you are a beekeeper, packer or market partner, we all need to be telling that same story, whenever we hear this misinformation.”