A very partisan write up. I love NZ honey and make a point of buying a particular NZ manuka honey (arataki) when I see it, but the Australian manuka honey is not "cashing in" on the NZ trade, it has existed for decades and medicinal honey for tropical ulcer treatment has existed for decades in Australia.
The decision to award DOC classification was itself a "cashing in" move despite manuka being patently a semi generic term for plants found throughout Australasia.
It was a smart move, and I don't fault them for seeing this as a tactic in a competitive trade market, but lets not pretend there is a substantive difference between the products here.
NZ manuka honey is now also riven by violent gang crime cashing in on the huge profits. Hive stealing is a thing.
Sugerbag, a dark runny native bees honey in Australia is worth more per kg. Designer chefs want it.
[..]Unlike harvesting from a commercial or hobby hive, taking honey from a native sugarbag hive often means the entire colony is destroyed.
But Dr Smith said land clearing, rather than traditional hunting, was the biggest threat to native bee colonies.
He said sugarbag hunting had a minor impact on the overall population of Australian sugarbag bees and the skill should be preserved.
"What a shame it would be to stop having this practice, this culture, that's been going on for thousands of years and is probably one of the longest honey cultures of the world," he said.[..] < altho this is discouraging. for the bees too.
very interesting. we have many more native bees here in ca than italian honey bees. there is a fallen oak in one of the hiking trails. it was buzzing all the time and the hiker who was with me(and part native american) told me that bees sometimes form hives inside dead hollow trees. and not to tell anyone so they can be undisturbed.
i have a lavender field and also maintain hives. the italian bees are pretty aggressive and native populations have gone down. also..a lot of california native vegetation is actually toxic to italian honey bees. like california buckeye for example. and i think in the south, yellow jessamine. their pollen can kill the italian bees.
thats one of the reasons for bees disappearing too. we also truck in millions of bee cross country for almond pollination which is a bee genocide of a different kind. this is why i feel like if we dont manage habitat we are shooting ourselves in the foot.
Australian native bees, apart from not having stingers, are tiny... about the same size as a baby fly. Most importantly, their hive structure is incompatible with normal modern beekeeping hives, hence they honey is taken directly from hives on trees, in the bush.
I recall that attempts are being made to have them work in normal boxes, but understand it's tricky.
Also, Jelly Bush is the common name for the NZ equivalent Manuka bush, both are of the tea tree family.
there is a lot of hype w/manuka here and i dont think we have ever heard of australian honey here stateside. a lot of honey is malted sweet syrup sadly. i had to label my honey 'gluten free' and 'organic'...both claims are ridiculous, but labeling is such a headache. we do not have AOC type labeling tho'...except for lavender and orange blossom honey etc that have single floral flavours and not blended, then a radius of 5 acres worth should have the same varietal as advertised. entirely ridiculous. bees dont understand borders or labeling. i even got a bottle of poison oak honey. and no, it wasnt the name of the company. wasnt brave enough to try it.
on a slightly diff note: australian father and son duo have come up with flowhive that is the scorn of old fashioned 'beeks' because it seems to make it too easy to collect honey. i do agree that apiary business can be exploitative and with bees on the loser side.
having had colony collapse for a few years and having had to pay for a commissary kitchen to extract honey, the flow hive design seems more and more appealling. the australians certainly understand their bees.
https://www.honeyflow.com/ : i am pretty smitten but false pride to be a 'real beekeeper' stops me from adopting this obviously clever and elegant design. Beek shaming is real! it's a thing.
If you've got poisonwood honey.. wait til you try Turkish seasonal... HALLUCINOGENIC honey.. (sorry for clickbaity) which actually exists and is a "thing"
> NZ manuka honey is now also riven by violent gang crime cashing in on the huge profits. Hive stealing is a thing.
I'd like to see a proof of that. The industry is very consolidated with a few dominant players and a lot of small beekeepers who happened to have manuka on their private land. It went through a boom, prices crashed and most unsavory operators moved on. There may be some opportunistic hive stealing, but that always existed even before manuka was the thing.
The decision to award DOC classification was itself a "cashing in" move despite manuka being patently a semi generic term for plants found throughout Australasia.
It was a smart move, and I don't fault them for seeing this as a tactic in a competitive trade market, but lets not pretend there is a substantive difference between the products here.
NZ manuka honey is now also riven by violent gang crime cashing in on the huge profits. Hive stealing is a thing.
Sugerbag, a dark runny native bees honey in Australia is worth more per kg. Designer chefs want it.