Mānuka Demand Strong, But Boom to Bust Warning Signs Presenting Says Major Seller

Egmont Honey chief executive James Annabell has returned from a recent sales trip to the UAE and Europe buoyed by continuing strong demand for mānuka honey, but with a warning for the New Zealand honey industry that there are signals another boom-bust cycle could be approaching.

Egmont Honey founder and chief executive James Annabell is buoyed by the global demand for mānuka honey, but has concerns that international retailers could delist product if price exceeds consumer’s ability to pay.

Egmont Honey has cemented itself as one of the country’s leading honey exporters in recent years, last year putting 2,800 tonnes of honey into jars, supplying markets through the likes of Costco, Albertsons and Walmart in America, Holland & Barrett in the UK and UAE and numerous other retailers in Europe and the Middle East.

Annabell says he sat on the aeroplane home to New Zealand and New Plymouth positive about how Egmont Honey the brand is tracking, and mānuka honey generally.

“There is demand everywhere for mānuka honey, including in the US still. Awareness is much greater than it was,” the Egmont Honey founder says.

Despite this, there were signs that trouble could lay ahead and the risk of a “boom-bust” cycle of honey pricing which besieged the industry over the past decade repeating is real he says.

“We are having to have tough conversations with retailers around getting price increases put through and we are getting genuine push back from the retailers. In many cases we are starting to lose shelf space.”

Egmont Honey lost a supply agreement with major German supermarket ALDI recently, which had amounted to around 400,000 jars of honey a year for the past three years, “simply because the prices have got too high and they can’t see the value in it,” Annabell says.

Given the scale and diversity of Egmont Honey’s trading, the chief executive is not threatened by the loss of one retailer in itself, but – along with losing some category listings domestically – is worried it could be a canary in the coal mine.

“Maybe, just maybe, it is a signal of the way things could go if we continue on this trajectory.”

In 2026 honey prices to beekeepers have taken a significant upturn, after more than half a decade of consolidation and business failures within apiculture.

He says he is wary of being seen as a packer “just trying to talk down the price of honey to the beekeeper”, stressing that Egmont Honey are beekeepers too – and expanding that side of their business – but that he believes it is important all industry participants think long term with their business decisions.

ALDI supermarket chain in Germany has delisted Egmont Honey due to mānuka honey’s pricing exceeding what the supermarket says consumers are willing to pay, shutting the door on 400,000 jar a year client to the New Plymouth company.

“I’m with the beekeepers, but am also looking at the long-term sustainability of the industry. Beekeepers have gone through some tough years, and Egmont Honey has helped clear the honey backlog, but we need to try and avoid the boom and bust because that cycle is bloody hard work for everyone.”

His most pressing concern is if “one or two of the big retailers which are driving the growth in the industry get fed up with the price rises and lack of availability of stock”.

“These big retailers don’t sell food, they sell real-estate – shelf space – and advertising. If that shelf space is empty for a week, they are not making money out of it. Or, if the consumer is not pulling through and buying that product because it has got out of reach for them in a struggling global economy, they delist it pretty quick and they put something else up there, a maple syrup, or a big bucket of Nutella or the likes. That is the Costco model,” Annabell explains.

He says some of the big international buyers are willing to lock into three-year contracts which would offer greater certainty of paths to the end consumers, but without the support of more honey supply from the industry behind them, inking those deals is not a reality for Egmont Honey.

“Beekeepers holding honey on the belief they will get better money for it later would be a risk because, if the retailers get fed up, then the cycle repeats. We all remember the $3.50 a kg bush honey days, and we all also remember the $14 bush honey days. Guess what quickly followed the $14? The $3.50. Bush honey is getting up to $9 or $10 a kg and the middle grade honeys are getting up there too, which is great for beekeepers. But that is probably about the maximum this honey can get to and still work as an effective blending honey.

“Because it sits well above the standard global commodity price for non-mānuka honey, its only real use is as a blending honey. When things start getting too frothy, we know that right behind it comes the $3.50 bush honey days, and we really don’t want to see that happen for the industry,” Annabell says, adding “The cycle has well and truly begun again.”