Australian honey news and information

Honey production and beehive numbers in Australia have both taken a fall over the past year according to the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council.

Danny Le Fevre, AHBIC CEO, said that poor conditions across much of Australia had led to less honey being produced this year and that a recent survey had revealed the national managed bee hive total had also fallen.

Leading New Zealand manuka honey producer, Comvita, has become a potential takeover target following a slide into loss-making in the first half of financial year 2023-2024.

In its statement on its latest results to the NZ Stock Exchange, the company reported a net loss of $NZ3.2million.

The result came on the back of a dip in sales with total revenue for the half, down some 12%.

Lower sales in both China and the US were said to be mainly responsible.

Takeover speculation has been growing in the wake of the results, and especially since the company’s recent notification to the NZSX that it had received a ‘Non-binding indicative offer.”

Claire Moore, the woman behind a new honey brand on my local supermarket shelves - Sweetjustice – has big plans for it.

The former Melbourne stockbroker recently told regional womens business magazine – OAK that "We are on track to become one of Victoria’s largest honey producers."

OAK reported Moore already has some 1300 bee-hives, with plans to grow that number to 3000, and the potential to produce around 200,000 kilograms of honey per year.

Perth based honey packer – Australian Honey Ventures – once again has its hand out to investors with a crowd-funding campaign looking to raise at least $1million.

Earlier campaigns raised more than $2million but it appears most, if not all of that has been spent on a new honey packing shed, bottling equipment and honey stocks.

Money raised in this latest campaign will mainly be used mainly for advertising and marketing, but some is also to be used in the development of new honey products for pharmacies.

Company founder and CEO Jay Curtin has put these new product developments at the centre of her pitch to investors and certainly her claims about them are sensational.

Curtin is spruiking Western Australian honeys as a cure for common vaginal infections including thrush and bacterial vaginosis.

On the latest publicly released figures, at least 34 separate infestations of the dreaded bee parasite – varroa destructor – have now been confirmed in Australia.

And the campaign to stamp out the outbreak has become a desperate race against time.

In the few short weeks since June 22nd, when it was first detected in sentinel hives at the Port of Newcastle, varroa has become well-established and spread quite widely.