It was once the scourge of Kiwi farmers

Manuka trees are being fed into the bee industry.

After lifetimes of fighting back the relentless advance of manuka shrubs on marginal land, farmers across New Zealand are now looking at the plant in a new light.

Stung into action by the phenomenal rise in the manuka honey industry, they are embracing their remaining manuka shrubs and adding to them to create hectares of manuka plantations.

"The fathers took out manuka and the sons are putting it back," quips Federated Farmers' John Hartnell, who is its Bees Industry Group chairman. He told delegates at the Manuka New Zealand 2016 conference, held at Hawera's TSB Hub event venue in February, that honey bees were already worth more than $4.5 billion to the New Zealand economy as pollinators, and this figure would grow.

"The honey bee is a primary tool on farm and orchard. There is no other option available that can undertake this [pollination] work and deliver results on a commercial scale."
He said monocultural farming practices had created a sterile environment that was often hostile to honey bees, but there was now a significant change in thinking.

"Historically, farmers would cut and burn any manuka or kanuka on their property to clear the land for pastoral use. Now, the opposite is happening.

"There are many hectares of new manuka plantings, largely using a cultivar that delivers a high yield of nectar [Leptospermum scoparium]. These plants are being fed into the bee industry - right throughout the country."

Manuka was particularly useful in returning harvested forestry land back into production, and also suited low-producing hill country land, where new plantings were filling in areas of existing manuka and kanuka, which flower at different times.

"That's the big challenge in beekeeping - you need another pollen source available in spring and autumn to make it work. You need plants that have different flowering times to manuka so the bees can still feed their hives and raise their broods."

There was also a requirement for shelter belts in areas where wind protection was necessary, as the manuka flower was easily damaged by wind. Farmers would also have to institute a robust weed and pest control programme to ensure the seedlings survived after spending so much on planting them.

Hartnell said about a third of the delegates to the manuka conference were landowners and iwi, all keen to add value to their farms. While the manuka would belong to the farmers, the honey was usually produced in partnership with a local beekeeper on a profit-share basis.

The first manuka plantations went in about five years ago, he said, but the knowledge was not as good as it is now.

"We have a nursery now that sells a large number of manuka seedlings. We have been looking at high-yield cultivars and have propagated for that."

Exports of manuka honey were up markedly, he said, and hive numbers had soared to about 700,000 (87.3 per cent owned by commercial beekeepers), run by about 6500 beekeepers.

"The honey bee industry is worth about $550 million a year, taking in exports, domestic use and pollination activities. We estimate it pollinates 85 per cent of fruit, agricultural and floral plants. It is also valuable as a pollinator of white clover, which regenerates nitrogen in our farm soils."

The conference also heard from Allan McPherson, Commercial Manager at Manuka Farming New Zealand. He said manuka could be a natural fit for the retirement of marginal, erosion-prone pastoral land (typically the least profitable 10 per cent of the farm), for replanting forestry areas and for riparian and shelter belt planting.

Those entering the manuka industry should consider four key economic variables, he suggested, these being establishment costs (including weed and pest control), honey quantity (yield per hive and hives per hectare) as well as honey quality (UMF level and price) and share of honey revenue.

The surge in manuka plantings for the honey industry has not gone unnoticed by the main banks. In an analysis piece in its Agri Focus, the ANZ Bank said the manuka honey sector represented a significant growth opportunity.

"While many landowners are allowing marginal land to naturally revert and are then harvesting the nectar from the entire available flora, the real earnings potential is in treating it as a specialised crop," the bank writes.

"The economics look solid too, with a marginal rate of return ranging from 10-15 per cent, and even higher if a grant can be used to reduce the establishment cost. Combined with the environmental benefits it can bring, this makes manuka a viable part of the land use mix for consideration by hill country landowners."

ANZ Rural Economist Con Williams said manuka seminars were being held in the East Coast, Bay of Plenty and Northland - the most favourable areas. "Investment of about $2000 per hectare is required to establish a plantation with a cropping focus. Some farmers are letting it revert naturally and bulking it up with plantings.

"The honey companies are looking for more supply and Maori corporations are looking at a range of investment options for manuka."

In a recent address to Waikato Property Council members, BNZ Chief Economist Tony Alexander suggested honey would soon follow the successful path blazed by the wine industry. He estimated the honey industry could grow to match the wine industry's $1.5 billion revenue a year.

He said he had heard of farmers in the Wairarapa who were replanting manuka after decades of fighting to keep it from re-establishing.

As part of the resurgence and refocus on the bee industry, the National Beekeepers Association (NBA) recently voted to become Apiculture New Zealand as of April 2016.
Members of the NBA voted for 58.63 per cent in favour, which indicates a continuation of support for unification, creating a single and effective industry body.

Hartnell said the positive vote was a huge sense of relief. "This is a milestone event in the apiculture industries history. The positive vote of support from the NBA membership reaffirms what the entire industry has been advocating for since the Apiculture Conference in 2014."