UMF ‘No’ Vote Makes for Uncertain Future

A spanner of gigantic proportions was thrown into the works of beekeeping and honey industry bodies Unique Mānuka Factor Honey Association (UMFHA) and Apiculture New Zealand (ApiNZ) when in early March members of the former voted ‘no’ to sweeping constitutional changes which would have welcomed more beekeepers into their fold. The Special General Meeting where the motion was put forward has also been criticised for its lack of forum to debate the changes.

The UMF Honey Association’s role for over 20 years has been to advocate for mānuka honey selling members on the world stage, that will continue, but beekeeper advocacy has been shunned by enough members to take it off the table.

While UMFHA leadership were confident it was in the honey marketing group’s best interest to take on advocacy work for beekeepers – a core role of many of their members’ businesses – it was a beekeeper of 70 years’ experience who appears to have been the major obstacle to that path.

Arataki Honey owner Russell Berry – regularly outspoken on matters of apicultural interest and a member of industry body New Zealand Beekeeping Inc’s (NZBI) executive council – says he and wife Annette Berry worked tirelessly over several weeks to rally fellow UMF members against the proposed changes.

“It was a huge job. I phoned a lot of people,” Berry says, estimating he spoke to between 25 and 50 of the approximately 80 UMFHA members.

The motion put forward at an online SGM on February 28 – in which Berry claims he was not allowed adequate time to speak against the motion, a claim supported by several others in attendance – would have not only seen the UMF group open up membership to beekeepers who don’t pack honey, but put them on a pathway to more encompassing levies on members. That path also included advocacy for legislative change to bring about industry wide honey levies.

UMF Honey Association chairman Rob Chemaly was leading the group’s SGM which has been criticised for muting at least one member’s attempt to speak openly.

The threshold required for constitutional change was at least 50% of members needed to cast a vote and at least 75% of them in favour of the motion. Online voting was open from Friday February 28 until 5pm Tuesday March 4 and by the afternoon of March 3 UMFHA CEO Tony Wright was able to assess the numbers and determine that the 75% mark would not be met. Final numbers released on March 5 revealed 29 against, 23 in favour and 23 who did not vote.

“The feedback we got through the entire process has been pretty supportive, so in a sense it was a little disappointing,” UMFHA chairman Rob Chemaly says of the result.

A written statement from his equivalent at ApiNZ, independent chair Nathan Guy removed the “little”, assessing it as “disappointing”.

“Apiculture New Zealand is disappointed that some of the Unique Manuka Factor Honey Association membership has voted not to support the formation of a stronger, more sustainable industry good body,” Guy stated.

“The new association was well designed to support both commercial beekeepers and exporters, and would have ensured the gains made by ApiNZ, its professionalism, strong networks and industry expertise would have been retained and built on to better support members.”

The landing spot for ApiNZ’s beekeeping members who are not already UMFHA aligned is now less clear, as Guy reinforces the intent is still to “wind-up” ApiNZ at a March 25 online SGM.

“The considerable challenges faced by the industry has seen many beekeeping and export businesses downsize or leave the industry. With fewer members, Apiculture NZ has become financially unsustainable based on its model of voluntary membership and voluntary funding,” Guy’s statement reads.

However, with ApiNZ named as the management agency for the industry’s American Foulbrood Pest Management Plan (AFB PMP), the ApiNZ “wind-up” may equate more to a “wind-down” in operations while still remaining in existence.

“Until a new management entity is appointed by the Minister for Biosecurity, ApiNZ will need to continue in that role, and have a board of directors and an adequate number of members,” Guy states.

Arataki Honey owner, beekeeper of 70 years’ experience and UMF Honey Association member Russell Berry appears to have played a key role in mobilising a vote to defeat constitutional change at the group.

It is understood the Minister, Andrew Hoggard, is intending to make a decision on the management entity for the Pest Management Plan in the coming weeks – following a months’ long review – which may make the ApiNZ position clearer should the role be officially alleviated from them.

Shaping as a potential – at least temporary – landing spot for overseeing the AFB PMP is NZBI, as an incorporated group with beekeeping advocacy at their core. By rallying against the UMFHA vote Berry, as a founding and executive member of the group, has also strengthened NZBI’s position to attract beekeeping members.

“I am looking after the future of the beekeeping industry in New Zealand,” Berry says.

“It is very dangerous when you ask marketing people to look after beekeeping matters. They don’t know anything about grafting, they don’t know anything about AFB, they don’t have any interest in pollination. It is two entirely different things. It is very much essential that it should be run as two separate things.

“The NZ Beekeeping executive are all commercial beekeepers and we are working alongside Southern North Island Beekeeping Group. Between us we can represent beekeepers very well.”

The beekeeping stalwart says Arataki Honey, based out of Hawke’s Bay and Rotorua, has been an UMFHA member since approximately the Association’s second year of operation, in the early 2000s. While his opposition to the UMFHA proposal was based on the philosophical disagreement that a group which for quarter of a century has been focused on adding value to the UMF brand for members’ use should extend itself to matters of beekeeping, he had other concerns of a more practical nature.

An email from Berry, with help from NZBI consultant Ian Fletcher, to many of his fellow UMFHA members ahead of the vote raised displeasure at ongoing funding to Mānuka Charitable Trust and concern that UMFHA does not list enough assets on its balance sheet to account for the “very real income it supports”. There was also scepticism that legislative changes required to enforce levies would be possible within the next election cycle and that “beekeepers will become second class members of their own industry” with “a weakened ability to respond to and lobby as a united industry on biosecurity issues, which really matter”.

Regardless of where members of the apiculture industry’s opinions rest on the matters of constitutional change within the most well-funded industry group, there must surely be respect for Berry’s tenacity and energy at 82 years old, primarily assisted by his 86-year-old wife.

“My good wife Annette worked all hours of the day and night. Hunting down addresses, writing emails for me. She has been a vital part of this and we have been doing it for two or three weeks now. Basically, all other work has ceased,” Berry says.

James Annabell, chief executive of Egmont Honey which exports a lot of packed mānuka honey in the multifloral category, raised the question at the SGM of whether the proposal to move mānuka honey into a Horticulture Export Authority (HEA) arrangement could lead to a ban on bulk and/or multifloral mānuka honey exports.

Egmont Honey CEO James Annabell.

“I had no comfort around what the HEA could do,” Annabell says.

“Whether it was through lack of consultation or lack of an open forum it wasn’t sold very well.”

And Berry has taken umbrage at that lack of an open forum at the online SGM, where he was muted.

“If you have a special general meeting and have a resolution on the table, I believe you have to allow people to speak for the resolution and against it, so people there can make up their mind which way to vote, and that wasn’t done,” Berry says.

Those ‘for’ the motion were given “heaps” of speaking time he says.

“Nobody was allowed to speak against it. That is wrong. I was indicating that I wanted to speak against it. I think they muted me. I was waving my hands around and they turned me off.”

Annabell was concerned at proceedings.

“Russell is a stalwart and it was awkward to see him shut down and muted when he was being respectful. It was concerning for him not to be able to say his piece,” the Egmont Honey chief executive says.

Chemaly is adamant he chaired the meeting appropriately, and says he hasn’t given any thought to resigning his position despite the criticism and attempting to lead the organisation down a path members were not willing to tread.

“There was a huge amount of discussion and quite a number of questions were asked and answered. I think there wasn’t any lack of discussion. I thought there was quite a lot,” Chemaly says.

With those holding office at UMFHA seemingly at odds with the thinking of a significant chunk of their membership, it is uncertain times. However, some things are certain the board chair reinforces.

“UMFHA as an organisation continues to do what we have been doing for 20 years or so. That hasn’t changed and was never ever going to change frankly. This was an attempt to draw in the industry in total, but that doesn’t appear to have achieved the target we are after,” Chemaly says.

“I guess that is democracy at its best. If this were an election we would say ‘the members have spoken’. We acknowledge that and respect that of course. Move on.”

What that “move on” will look like for all – individuals and groups – is the question hanging over the apiculture industry.