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 find out if and how such sales of New Zealand’s highest-quality honey fits within their business, and if they believe there should be a future for it.

On an average day in 2024 more than four tonnes of monofloral mānuka honey left New Zealand in bulk, that’s more than a dozen drums a day, with 2.1 tonne of that heading to the UK alone. The 54.3% increase on 2023 is more fully explored in Bulk Monofloral Mānuka Honey Exports Hit Record Levels in 2024, which includes a ‘lost value’ equation of NZD39.1m in monofloral mānuka honey value to New Zealand in 2024 alone due to the decreased per-kg returns for bulk (NZD26.90), compared to that which is ‘retail packed’ (NZD53.47). Over the past six years that ‘lost value’ equates to just shy of NZD150m.

A record 1471 tonnes of bulk monofloral mānuka honey was exported from New Zealand in 2024, up 518 tonnes on the previous year.

“If you have 50 percent more bulk mānuka honey out there on those shores, in competition with what is packed here in New Zealand, we will never be able to compete,” says Blanche Morrogh, owner of Kai Ora Honey.

The Northland business both packs its own brand for domestic and export sale and sends mānuka honey offshore in bulk.

“It is a difficult one to balance because people need cash flow and it has to go somewhere,” Morrogh says of the decision of their business and the wider industry to offer bulk international sales alongside retail-ready product.

For an industry seemingly awash in mānuka honey (read A Honey Industry in the Dark) honey sales, regardless of the form the honey is packed in and the value it returns, have benefit in reducing surplus and bringing money into the industry.

Therefore, even the Unique Mānuka Factor Honey Association (UMFHA), which promotes quality in packed monofloral mānuka honey, is aware that any change to the rules around bulk exports needs to be very carefully considered.

“I would like to see a process of consultation with the wider industry on understanding the pros and cons, financial implications etcetera before we consider any recommendations. Before we talk about a change pathway we have to be very clear on the rationale for change and why it would lead to better outcomes,” UMFHA chief executive Tony Wright says.

Many of UMFHA’s licensees export mānuka honey in bulk as well as retail packs.

For beekeepers though, many of who have gone out of business or downsized in recent years in the face of a dramatic drop in the price of their most prized – mānuka – honey, a change in approach which has the potential to add value to their produce is surely appealing.

“If we were to sell just bulk we wouldn’t have a viable business,” says Jason Campbell, owner of mānuka honey specialty business Wilderness Valley Honey, south of Auckland.

Wilderness Valley exports retail packed mānuka honey and sells excess honey in bulk domestically.

‘High Quality Japan Made’ states this advertisement for ‘Pure New Zealand Mono Floral Manuka Honey’ in Japan.

“I would love to get to a point where all our honey is packed into a jar, plus some others’ honey, because that is really the only way you can do it and give beekeepers a decent price. You have to sell it at higher margins. If we send overseas in bulk the margins will never come back. We are giving them to an overseas company,” Campbell says.

The number of registered beekeepers with more than 50 hives has dropped from a high of 1332 in 2019 to 807 in data released by the Ministry for Primary Industries in February. In that time total registered hive numbers have plummeted 42%, from 918,026 to 533,838.

“I don’t hear about many people coming into the industry, just people going under,” Campbell observes, and without the option of selling in bulk, on the domestic market at least, his business may not have survived either.

“If we weren’t selling some of our honey in the drum, we would still have honey sitting in the shed, not making money. There is a catch-22 at play.”

In Whanganui, Johann Ander exports mānuka honey to the world, in both bulk and retail packed form, and has done since 2013. Some years they have sent as much as 100 tonnes of mānuka honey in a drum to Japan alone. He notes that, in terms of revenue to his business, retail packed mānuka honey is set to surpass that of bulk, despite the volume of the latter being in the order of five times as high. The added value doesn’t come easy though.

“Going international can carry a large upfront investment, especially if you are packing jars,” Ander explains.

“You spend a lot just on getting it into jars, then a lot travelling to shows, and marketing it, all in the hope of a sale. It can be risky. There’s more money in it, but there is more money up front. More risk, more reward and it’s not for everyone and certainly requires a high level of expertise. With bulk, a lot more honey goes out the door and it is ready to go out the door, so payment is immediate.”

Ander believes the ‘lost value’ of NZD39.1million to the industry in 2024 due to bulk monofloral mānuka honey exports compared to that volume going into retail ready packs is not such an easy calculation. The change in rules required to predicate a change from bulk to packed honey would muddy the values and the calculation.

“If everyone has packed honey, you will still get a premium, but there would be a lot more packed honey in jars. Supply and demand will mean more competition and thus reduced price. Also, when you go to your buyer forcing them to buy your honey at five times the price, they are going to hunt around,” Ander says.

Packing honey in New Zealand would benefit the wider New Zealand economy though he – and others – points out, with packing materials and labour sourced domestically.

Is there a risk of international bulk mānuka honey buyers seeking Australian honey if the bulk supply line from New Zealand is shut off? Ander believes the commitment to New Zealand mānuka honey from his Japanese buyers is firm.

“They are very specific with the honey they buy. They would never change their brand like that. That is not to say others won’t, but all my clients definitely wouldn’t.”

A major exporter of bulk and packed honey, Midlands Apiaries says bulk monofloral mānuka exports will continue to form part of their business model and, sales manager for north America and Europe, Nick Kerr believes it needs to remain that way for the mānuka honey industry to grow.

“If the New Zealand honey industry goes away from bulk monofloral mānuka exports we are in trouble,” Kerr says.

“We need to be open to it. The growth is going to come from products other than mānuka honey in a jar, and the most efficient way to do that is shipping in bulk and getting it there cost effectively.”

Further to that, there are specific cases where jarring in New Zealand is less sustainable, both environmentally and economically.

“For markets like Europe where glass is popular, and plastic is frowned upon, particularly in Germany, then if we can supply bulk for them to fill it makes a lot more sense than for us to import glass jars from China, fill them here, then send it to the other side of the world. Bulk, in those instances, is more efficient and a more sustainable model,” Kerr says.

Midlands Apiaries website declares themselves a “go-to for premium bulk honey in NZ” in one sentence and “here to assist” in “cheap bulk honey” in another on the same page, highlighting how the bulk honey trade offers diminished returns for a premium product.

In the Wairarapa, beekeeper and mānuka honey exporter Stu Ferguson carries out a similar practice in exporting mānuka honey drums to Germany from his Hunter Reilly Honey business, using BeeApp to track and trace all the way to the consumer.

“There are bulk exports and there are bulk exports,” Ferguson says.

“Our exports are going into specialty, custom-made jars which are manufactured in Germany. So, it doesn’t make any sense to have the jars shipped out here, us fill them, then ship them back.

“We make a little bit of money, they make good money and the system works to my thinking. The integrity remains with the product.

“However, when mānuka honey is sent offshore in bulk only for it to be blended down with some other type of honey, yet still get a mānuka label put on it, then the integrity of the product is removed. The key is maintaining traceability from New Zealand to the consumer, which proves integrity. With that, plus a standardised quality mark for the whole industry for packed honey, we could add extra value.”

Improved traceability of bulk mānuka honey exports is also much-needed in Morrogh’s view.

“I am not saying that bulk isn’t a good opportunity for export sales. It is a large part of our economy. We should be able to trace that process though. There needs to be an extra layer of responsibility on those we sell it to to report back so that we can see where it is going to. People need to understand how selling bulk honey is impacting the industry as a whole,” The Kai Ora Honey owner says.

Ferguson believes with modern computer software a much-improved traceability system is well within the mānuka honey industry’s grasp, while Morrogh believes international bulk honey buyers could be made to pick it up.

“The value in the product is to the countries to which we are exporting it, so we should be able to force them into tracing it. The bigger retailers like Holland & Barrett or Rouse are having their customers hold them accountable with ESG (environmental, social and governance) reports and the likes. Therefore, having a traceable model for honey allows a stronger relationship between the bigger buyers and their consumers by understanding intimately the supply chain and how everyone is affected,” Morrogh says.

The ultimate in brand protection is a geographic indicator she says, and she sits on the board of Te Pitau Ltd which is lobbying industry and government to seek to establish that Champagne-type security for mānuka honey. Short of that, there is still more the industry can be doing to make the best of bulk exports.

“Some will argue that the problem is cheap honey prices within New Zealand and undercutting [on the shelf] and a race to the bottom. That is all the case,” Morrogh says, adding “but when you have a 50% increase in bulk product leaving New Zealand without any accountability over what happens to it, that is a problem too.”