Bulk monofloral mānuka honey exports reached a record 1,471tonnes in CY2024, an increase of 54.3% over the CY2023 volume. The United Kingdom accounted for over half that volume at 769 tonnes, up 64.6% year on year, while China saw a near 15-fold increase.
According to Statistics New Zealand, the bulk mānuka honey was shipped at an average free-on-board price of NZD26.90 per kilogram, a discount of 49.7% to the NZD53.47/kg achieved for retail pack monofloral mānuka honey. (Free-on-board or FOB prices do not include shipping or insurance costs.)
Shipments to the UK returned NZD17.13 per kilogram, 36.3% less than the average price for all markets and 68.0% less than that achieved in the retail pack mono mānuka category (all markets).
The value from downstream processing into retail packs that was forfeited to offshore honey companies and retail brands as a result of the bulk exports amounted to NZD39.1m. (The lost value is calculated by multiplying the volume of bulk mānuka honey sold by the difference in the bulk and retail pack FOB export prices.)
In the six years to December 2024, the lost value has reached NZD147.9m. (2019 is the first full year for which export data in the bulk and retail pack monofloral mānuka honey categories are available. Our summary analysis of these data is presented in Table 1. Market-specific data are shown in Tables 2-3.)
The bulk exports have occurred on a smokestack scale. The 2024 volume of 1,471 tonnes converts to about 4,900 300-kilogram drums. At 80 drums per 20-foot shipping container, on average each six days in calendar 2024 a container laden with bulk monofloral mānuka honey left New Zealand.
Although UK data in the bulk monofloral mānuka honey trade are the standout, unwelcome surprises are seen for several countries. Exports in this low-value category to Germany, Japan, and the US － three countries that should represent high-value markets － ballooned by 94.4%, 28.0%, and 202.1% (the volumes were 272 tonnes, 143 tonnes, and 131 tonnes; see Table 2).
The emergence of a Chinese preference for bulk over retail pack monofloral mānuka should send shock waves through an industry divided into those who view bulk exports as a legitimate source of earnings and those who believe that they more represent a cannibalistic betrayal.
Exports in this category to China grew nearly 15-fold to 51.5 tonnes and catapulted the world's second largest economy into sixth place in the markets for bulk monofloral mānuka honey. At the same time, shipments to China of retail pack monofloral mānuka fell 22.0% to 800.9 tonnes. The decline for Hong Kong was 48.8% to 78.2 tonnes.
"Me too!" shouts were heard from Indonesia (9.1 tonnes from 1 tonne in CY2023), United Arab Emirates (6.0 tonnes from zero), and South Korea (5.5 tonnes from 4.0 tonnes).
Bulk monofloral mānuka honey export growth symbolises a growing confidence on the part of offshore retailers that they can do as well or better under their own brands than under brands of New Zealand honey companies.
Brand New Zealand itself may also be under threat. Following the coffin lid-nail defeat on home ground of the mānuka certification trademark case in May 2023, offshore brands may now feel unhindered in feeding either Australian or New Zealand bulk mānuka into their retail mānuka honey products.
Despite the growing lost value to New Zealand’s mānuka honey industry, Apiculture New Zealand devoted just 14 words to the subject of bulk honey exports in its February 2024 document, "New Zealand Honey Strategy 2024-2030, Thriving Together, Futureproofing New Zealand Apiculture".
Background to the "Lost Value" Calculation
The lost value calculation presented in Table 1 has been enabled by the introduction by New Zealand Customs Services of export categories for bulk and retail monofloral mānuka honey in August 2018, following the finalization of a scientific definition for monofloral mānuka honey by the Ministry for Primary Industries in December 2017. Export statistics for the categories first appeared in trade data for July 2018. Therefore, the first full year for which the data are available is 2019. Thus, six years of data for the categories are now available and can be downloaded from the Statistics New Zealand website.
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