increase font size
Apiculture NZ chair Bruce Wills.
Apiculture NZ says the future focus of the industry is finding markets for what is seen as a glut of honey.
Chair Bruce Wills says the industry's recent three-day conference was a mixture of positive news and challenges. But it was honey exports that took centre stage.
In the year ended 2020, New Zealand earned $505 million from honey exports, but the outlook for this season is not good. In MPI's (Ministry for Primary Industries) latest report on the state of the primary sector, the bad news is spelt out with honey exports predicted to be down almost $1 million by 2025.
However, the problem is worse, with an estimated 20,000 tonnes of unsold honey being held in beekeepers' sheds around the country. This honey mountain is equivalent to about a year of production.
Will says this all goes back to the controversy over what is and isn't mānuka honey.
"The price of the honey that didn't meet the mānuka criteria crashed and a bunch of beekeepers have said they will keep this in their shed because they are not prepared to sell at the low price."
Wills says the mānuka boom also saw a dramatic rise in hive numbers and these now stand at about 900,000.
The value for pollination and other bee products is estimated at about $5 billion.
A big shakeup in the honey sector is about to take place with the news that the industry good body, ApiNZ, and the export focused Unique Manuka Factor Honey Association are looking to merge to form a new industry body.
Thousands of honey retailers and professionals worldwide are getting a taste of the remarkable properties of New Zealand mānuka honey.
After three years of record performance, mānuka honey exporter and retailer Comvita has reported an annual net loss of $77 million.
Bee awareness month - September - ended on a high for the struggling apiculture sector.
Ravensdown chair Bruce Wills has been returned unopposed as a North Island director for another three-year term.
More than 260 people gathered at Muller Station in Marlborough recently to celebrate the 2024 Westpac + OsGro Marlborough Farmer of the Year winner.
RWNZ has opened nominations for the position of a North Island board member.
New student research from the University of Canterbury in partnership with Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) could improve knowledge surrounding the risk of wildfire.
Mechanical weeding is exploding in Europe because increasing resistance means they have "run out of herbicide", says Canterbury agronomist Charles Merfield.
The ongoing rise of the Chinese middle class will drag up demand for New Zealand products there in the future.
New Zealand’s free trade deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has now been signed.
OPINION: The end-of-year booze-up at the posh Northern Club in Auckland must have been a beauty, as the legal 'elite'…
OPINION: It divides opinion, but the House has passed the first reading of the Gene Technology Bill.
