Honey Sellers Report from the “El Dorado” of Natural Products
- Patrick Dawkins
- Mar 31
- 4 min read
In March at least half a dozen New Zealand honey marketers put their best foot forward at one of America’s biggest trade shows, Natural Products Expo West in Los Angeles. At a tumultuous time for the United States of America and their trading partners, we check in with three Kiwis in attendance to get their feel for New Zealand honey’s most important market.
Accounting for NZD100million in trade value for New Zealand honey, the US market made up almost a quarter of the industry’s export value of NZD414million last year. It’s growing too, more than doubling since 2018 on the back of year-to-year increase in all but one year through that period.
Honey exporters scrap for retail space and online sales in the key market, with competition coming from both abroad and fellow New Zealand honey sellers. Then there is also a busy health food products market to contend with, as New Zealand’s honey exports to the US are almost entirely centred on mānuka. Natural Products Expo West is a chance to form and solidify relationships with those making or influencing buying decisions, and just generally be seen.
“You’ve got people coming from everywhere. It is the biggest natural products show in America and no-doubt one of the biggest food shows. Somewhere between 65,000 and 75,000 people attending, 3,200 exhibitors. The scale is phenomenal,” says Unique Mānuka Factor Honey Association (UMFHA) marketing manager Campbell Naish, who attended the March 4-7 expo, along with chief executive Tony Wright.
“It’s very busy. It’s quite an undertaking,” says Taylor Pass Honey Company chief executive Hadleigh Galt, whose company exhibited and has had a presence at the Anaheim Convention Centre-based event for the past four years.
“It’s an opportunity to understand what some of the US trends are and who the main players are within respective segments.”
However, Naish says there is a mood of “utter confusion” in America given the political and economic turmoil President Trump’s regime has delivered.
“The ‘overwhelm’ strategy that is being thrown around politically is having a major effect on everybody. Investment in businesses is slow over there. Investment from venture capital funds and the innovation and growth pipeline has gone quiet because no one knows what is going on,” the UMF marketing manager says.
Egmont Honey is a leading honey exporter to the US and chief executive James Annabell says the expo was once again inspiring as to the potential of mānuka honey in the market, but that it is getting a bit “same, same” and there were some notable absentees.
“We don’t go there to attract business, we go to put the brand out there and to catch up with our retailers,” Annabell says.
“It is typically a very well attended show by retailers. We caught up with a bunch of key customers, but in saying that some of our biggest customers and therefore some of the biggest buyers in the US were notably absent.”
Despite that, the CEO says the mānuka honey market is strong. Egmont Honey product now retails through major retailers Costco, where they will hold a 50% share of all the mānuka honey shelf space from May, Walmart and – thanks to a recently inked deal – Albertsons.
The UMF team also explored the wider marketplace by visiting about 20 supermarkets. Naish calls Los Angeles, and Anaheim in particular, “the El Dorado for natural products”.
“Every supermarket had mānuka honey in it, and that was not the case two years ago,” he says, referring back to his last visit to the city.
“Across the board there is New Zealand packed mānuka honey for each tier of the market. Slowly but surely more mānuka honey is going into the market.”
There is more in the dietary supplements section of retailers too Naish observed. There, mānuka is the standalone pure honey product, but with plenty of competition.
“Our real competition is the other natural products in the categories which mānuka honey plays in. Probiotics, botanicals, mushrooms – different varieties for different occasions – are massive in the US, berry extracts and even echinacea still sits prominent. Ayurvedic traditional Indian medicine is becoming popular too.”
High end mānuka products, UMF20 or more, only make up a “small sliver” of the US mānuka honey market he says, something they see in their licence fees and was prominent in the market place.
“America has never been a high-end market and you have to listen to the market, we can’t make it do anything.
“There are a range of high-end retailers where the high-end honey gets traded, but most US buyers shop at Costco, Ralphs, Kroger, Albertsons, and they go out every day and say ‘where is my cheapest food and local’,” Naish says.
Demand for high quality natural products is strong in the US though, and events like Natural Products Expo West are the tip of an iceberg as far as consumer education into our honey goes, according to Galt.
“Consumers continue to seek high-quality natural products and that is where New Zealand is in a fortuitous position, especially in the honey industry. There is still an enormous amount of education to be done in the market. Despite it being a big market, there is still awareness that needs to be built. It is early stages of educating what good quality honey looks like,” Galt says.
While there might be more education to be done to maximise potential, if the trend in honey export growth to the US continues, more of New Zealand beekeepers’ sweet stuff will be sought by their honey buyers.
“While my opinion on this years’ Natural Products Expo might be a bit down on previous years, that doesn’t reflect my excitement for honey in the US in general,” Annabell says, adding “It is only looking up and for beekeepers that means we will need more of their honey, and buying season is now”.
Comentários