UMF Honey Association Welcomes Two New Board Members

Jason Prior. The Manawatu beekeeper and honey exporter is now a UMF Honey Association board member, saying he ran “on a vote for change”.

As the Unique Mānuka Factor Honey Association (UMFHA) seeks to grow the value of their well-established UMF™ brand, two new board members will soon be helping provide direction, following a July 16 AGM in Hamilton and online.

Jason Prior and Adam Rundle step into the roles, replacing James Jeffery and Alex Turnbull as they depart UMFHA and the honey industry.

Jeffery steps down as his SummerGlow Apiaries winds up their Waikato-based business. Holding the first ever UMF licence number issued, the business founded by Jefferies’ in-laws, Bill and Margaret Bennett, is another casualty of the dramatic drop in mānuka honey prices in recent years.

Turnbull recently quit as CEO of Mānuka Health, removing him from the industry. The company’s head of research and development, Kannan Subramanian, threw his hat into the ring to replace Turnbull on the UMFHA board, but it was Prior and Rundell who members elected in the three-applicant race.

Prior is based in the Manawatu, from where he has run Downunder Honey, a beekeeping and honey exporting business, for the past 15 years. Exporting to 12 countries, Prior describes his business as “medium” sized, which has him “well placed to represent New Zealand honey exporters” and that he ran for the board position on a vote for change. A believer in the need for stronger quality-assurances systems and “end-to-end product assurance”, Prior comes to the UMFHA board backing an industry-led levy to help meet those ends, with a corresponding reduction in UMF fees.

Adam Rundle. The Honey New Zealand head of apiculture enters the UMFHA board after 10 years in the industry. 

“We need a much stronger marketing organisation that has a clear mandate to sell brand-NZ to the world,” Prior says.

Rundle’s background in the honey industry leaves him well-connected form his Auckland base. He has held the role of ‘head of apiculture’ at Honey New Zealand since February 2023, carrying out honey buying for the company which owns the Manuka Doctor brand. Prior to that, Rundle worked for Ecrotek Beekeeping Supplies from 2015, as a sales and business development manager through a period of dramatic industry growth.

The newcomers join an existing board chaired by Rob Chemaly, and including Mike Sheeran of Prolife Foods, Comvita chief science officer Jackie Evans, NZ Institute of Primary Industries Management chief executive Jo Finer, and experience consultant Hannah Doney.