The US Honey Market Through the Eyes of Sellers

With the US market leaping into the lead as the largest consumer of New Zealand's mānuka honey, we ask some of the country’s largest honey exporters, along with the UMF Honey Association (UMFHA) who promotes Kiwi beekeepers’ most valuable product, what is driving the growth and if it is likely to continue.

Comvita’s UMF12+ manuka honey range has helped propel record sales revenues in the US market.

UMFHA contend “there is no single answer” to the surge in demand for mānuka honey coming from the US, one major seller points to the increasing role in AI to help educate consumers, while Comvita have a “club-retail” partnership to thank for a huge sales boom. There is also little doubt price competition, particularly on both the physical shelves of major wholesale, department or grocery stores, or through online retailer Amazon, is helping make mānuka honey more accessible to the US consumer and has thus helped clear New Zealand’s honey glut.

UMFHA have promoted the potential of the US market to their members for years now, and strived to educate the American market as to the benefits of authentic mānuka honey. Marketing manager Campbell Naish says multiple exporters are experiencing sales growth after spending years “building relationships, partnerships, promotion, adapting and innovating product and educating the market”.

Traditionally the west coast (i.e. California) and north-east of the country were the strongholds for mānuka honey sales, but that is expanding UMFHA believe. Costco has more than 600 “warehouses” spread across the States, while Walmart has approximately 5000 stores dotting the country and Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer, headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Both honey sales per head of capita and the health and wellness foods category are growing apace in the US, with natural and organic food sales surpassing USD300billion in 2024, double that of a decade prior.

“Compared to older, more established markets the per-capita consumption of mānuka honey in the USA has grown significantly and is catching up with some major markets,” Naish says.

With 8.75g of mānuka honey consumed annually per capita in the USA and 20.75g in the UK in 2025, “there appears to be room for growth to continue in the world’s biggest economy,” he adds.

Artificial Intelligence, Real Results

For mānuka honey giant Egmont Honey, the ‘Big-Box’ sellers of Costco Wholesale and Walmart 'hypermarket' stores are crucial to sales, along with supply to the country’s second largest grocery chain, Albertsons. However, it’s not all bricks and mortar selling and chief executive James Annabell says if sales from online seller Amazon are aggregated then they too are a significant channel for New Zealand’s mānuka honey.

AI is also playing a role in helping drive sales, particularly to higher mānuka honey grades, Annabell believes.

“AI is a very good tool for our industry. Potential customers, wanting to know what the benefits of mānuka honey are, can chuck that into ChatGPT or Google AI and it will give you all of those. We are seeing a massive shift globally to the higher grades again. People are looking for efficacious honey and that is where we want to be. I think AI is telling people the real efficacy of mānuka honey is at 10+. So, I think the way in which people are researching consumer goods is helping us,” Annabell says.

Comvita’s Secret Weapon

Comvita recorded sales of NZD53.7m into “North America” in CY2025. While this is a larger area than just the dominant US market, it can safely be assumed they contributed around 40% of New Zealand’s total NZD130.4m combined monofloral and multifloral mānuka honey exports to the US.

When announcing their return to half-year profit in February, Comvita chief executive Karl Gradon spoke regularly of their “club-retail partnership”. While not willing to say it publicly, this is surely their sales through membership-only warehouse chain Costco.

“We are delighted with the results from our club-retail partnership in North America,” Gradon says.

“In North America …  it is absolutely clear that they are now the world’s largest mānuka honey market, and Comvita has been part of this growth through its club-retail relationship. This relationship has delivered significant sales growth and also an increase in net contribution for the half year.”

While mānuka honey sales boom, that “net contribution” tells the other side of the story. Effectively a measure of margin gained on sales, Comvita’s half year presentation showed a net contribution percentage slide from 33.7% in the same period in 2023 to 9.7% in the latest figures. The export stats tell a similar story, with packed monofloral mānuka per-kilogram values to the US at NZD39.18 sitting above only Australia (NZD38.17) amongst New Zealand’s top 10 export markets, a 15.8% decline since 2019. It’s a similar story with packed multifloral mānuka where, once again, the US beats out only Australia for value in the top 10 and in the past year alone has dropped 33% to NZD23.85/kg.

“…the average price per kilo has declined, reflecting surplus supply, increased competition, and ongoing commoditisation, particularly at the lower UMF end of the honey-in-a-jar segment,” Gradon says.

Both Comvita and Egmont supply UMF12+ mānuka honey to Costco and these are understood to be big sellers. Part of Comvita’s growth strategy appears to be to look to even lower grades in the US though.

The locations of almost 5000 Walmart stores across the USA. Amazon.com recently dethroned Walmart as the leading US retailer, and both online and ‘bricks and mortar’ retail have helped turn the US market into the largest of New Zealand’s mānuka honey export recipients.

“We firstly need to grow share and volume, particularly in the lower UMF categories, through market diversification, distribution extension, and customer and business partnerships. The USA continues to be a key market for us, and we are focused on both online and offline growth, alongside diversification in these channels,” Gradon says.

Though China has taken a back seat to the US in terms of the global ranking of the mānuka honey market, Chinese interests remain in the front seat of both Egmont Honey and Comvita, with the largest shareholders of both companies Chinese.

Can it Last?

With big volumes hitting the US market at lowered prices, the logical question to ask is, can the market be sustained as New Zealand’s honey inventory depletes? Much of Comvita’s honey was sold following huge inventory devaluation. Maintaining a profit if having to buy new honey at higher values could supress profits for them and others.

“If the honey is available then demand is there,” Annabell says from Egmont’s perspective.

“Again, it is the whole thing around sustainability of pricing of product. Companies like us who have a strong supply chain and production base, arguably the bigger guys, are still going to be able to supply the retailers.”

However, there are potential “headwinds”.

“If our input prices all of a sudden jump 25 percent, there is no way I can get that through to a retailer. We end up in tough positions,” Annabell says.

While the US has been a focus for UMFHA and many of their members, the group says the industry needs to be wary.

“It is important for the industry to continue developing value in mature, emerging and new markets simultaneously to maintain diversity and reduce risk of market dependence,” Naish says.

UMFHA say honey production volumes will play into the sustainability of the US mānuka market, along with consumer confidence which could be impacted by mid-term elections, but “the primary pillars of category growth remain”.

“Interest in honey, natural health trends, increased distribution, awareness and understanding,” Naish lists, adding, “while it is impossible to predict exactly what will happen it appears likely that demand will continue to grow in the near term.”