For the past five years Manuka Research Partnership Ltd (MRPL) has been researching what’s required to develop the best manuka honey with the aim of boosting exports from about $75 million in 2010 to $1.2 billion annually by 2028.
MRPL wants to double the land area in manuka economically accessible to beekeepers, and both the hives per hectare and the average yield per hive.
Consortium members include listed honey company Comvita, state-owned farmer Landcorp, family-owned apiary Tweeddale, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, Aborex Industries, Nukuhau Carbon, Taihape beekeepers and Maori trustee Te Tumu Paeroa. They’ve pledged to invest $1.4m over seven years, matched by government funding.
It has been trialling cultivars in different locations to develop those offering higher yields, the most active honey and suitable for the region they’re planted. The target is a 16-fold productivity gain through factors such as flowering times, soil types and optimum planting densities.
MRPL has set up Manuka Farming NZ, which has begun selling the new cultivars this year to landowners and beekeepers in order to recoup research costs.
Manuka honey products maker Comvita gets a royalty on the cultivars, many of which were part of its original genetics programme under way for the past decade. It has trial plantations on its own or contracted land in various locations.
Comvita chief supply chain officer, Colin Baskin, said manuka plantations were an integral part of best land use, especially now honey prices had risen because of scarcity of supply.
“In some coastal areas they’ve been farming livestock for years unsuccessfully because the land is not suitable for it,” he said.
“There’s an opportunity for farmers to benefit from existing manuka or to plant-out more because it’s better than the alternative.”
Seminars are being held to encourage landowners to consider manuka as an alternative crop. The first, held in the Hawke’s Bay late last year, could only seat 300 and people had to be turned away, MRPL chairman Neil Walker said.
In an October Agri Focus research note, ANZ economist Con Williams said to increase supply, landowners need to invest and treat manuka honey as a genuine crop.
“It represents not just an opportunity to boost economic returns on erodible pastoral land, but also provides another land use option to throw into the mix to help comply with tightening regional council regulation for sediment run-off and water quality standards,” Williams said.
He estimated a manuka plantation could deliver a 10-15% return on marginal capital employed, and even more if a grant is used to reduce establishment costs ranging from $1600 to $2500 per hectare.
The Government’s Afforestation Grant Scheme aims to have 15,000ha of new forests planted by 2020, including natives such as manuka. Grants of $1300 a hectare are available in return for the Crown getting the carbon credits. The next funding round opens in April.
Manuka returns vary widely depending on the level the landowner gets involved. The three most common arrangements are for landowners to have a fixed-price contract per hive with a beekeeper, a fixed-price contract based on production and a proportion (15-30% typically) of the total earnings from the honey produced.
Manuka honey prices also have a wide range depending on the level of methylglyoxal purity. Williams estimated prices were $18-$22 per kilogram at the low end rising to $50-$100/kg at the top end.
Analysis of plant survival and growth rates from the Primary Growth Partnership trial plantations, some of which have been under way for up to five years, have shown ongoing pest control is important.
Walker said in many cases the manuka is planted on marginal land from which farmers had previously no or little return.
The Taranaki farmer said neighbouring landowners should team-up to make larger plantations that would allow them to hire their own beekeeper and increase returns.
“I’ve done this myself. I have 500 beehives and 250ha of manuka and my own beekeeper so we get the wholesale value of the honey.”
