Whanganui's Yobees Honey expanding after winning gold and silver in international competition

Neil Walker said Yobees Honey's main customers were medical and cosmetic industries. Photo / Bevan Conley

A Whanganui honey producer is upping its production after winning big in an international honey competition.

Yobees Honey entered the London International Honey Awards 2022 and their 15+ Mānuka Honey was one of 10 New Zealand honeys to achieve the gold quality award.

The company also won silver for their Bush Honey.

"It's like the wine connoisseur thing but for honey," Yobees co-owner Neil Walker said.

"It's an international standard that if you achieve it you can put labels on your jars to say it's been internationally recognised as one of the top class in the world at either a bronze, silver, gold or platinum level," Walker said.

Over 200 honeys from around the world were given the gold quality award at this year's competition in June, and 39 were awarded silver, five of which were from New Zealand.

The highest award is platinum, achieved by no New Zealand honeys this year.

Yobees honey managing director Johann Ander said entering the competition had been a long time coming.

"We put a lot into our honey from planting, buying land and now getting these awards. It's very exciting," Ander said.

Their gold-awarded mānuka honey was from trees planted by Yobees Honey five years ago in Maxwell.

"This was our first time entering and we only entered the two honeys, so we're very happy with the results," Ander said.

Walker said a lot of the mānuka around Whanganui were very active.

"The active ingredient in mānuka is dihydroxyacetone [DHA]. DHA is converted by the bees into methylglyoxal [MGO]," he said.

"Not all of the DHA turn to MGO, but if you hold the honey and manage it properly, over time the DHA turns into MGO. The more MGO the more valuable the honey.

"Say it starts at $30 to $40 a kilo, if you manage it right it could double in value a year later. If you're lucky and it goes up to the very high levels it could be worth $300 plus after that."

Walker said it was so valuable because MGO was a powerful antiseptic.

"When you get into these highly valuable honeys they are used in the cosmetic industry of for medical purposes such as wounds, sores and carbuncles," he said.

"We don't normally want to eat $300 honey on our morning toast."

Walker said there was a limited market for people who bought high-grade mānuka for personal consumption, and that customers were typically medical and cosmetic companies.

He said one of their leading customers was Yamada Bee Farm in Japan, which used their honey in health and cosmetic products.

Johan and Rachel Ander with their son Ellias enjoying Yobees mānuka honey. Photo / Supplied

Founded in Westmere in 2013, Yobees Honey bought land last month in Kai Iwi to further develop into a beekeeping site.

Ander said the new land would help them improve the quality and quantity of their honey by planting up the land with selectively bred mānuka trees.

He said mānuka from Whanganui was very high grade, and there was lots of research currently being done as to why that was.

"What we do know about the honey we gather is the quality varies year to year, and also area to area," he said.

"Every tree produces a different grade of honey, and when the bees take the nectar back to the hive it all gets mixed up."

"We intend to keep this business local based and totally locally owned as more and more honey companies are falling under foreign control," Walker said.

"Recently the large scale New Plymouth-based company Egmont Honey by the World's largest Food Company Nestlè."

He said there were big players in the honey industry, dominated by foreign interests.

"They tend to want to act in a very corporate way which is putting a lot of pressure on small beekeepers and pushing them out of business."

He said the demand for mānuka honey in New Zealand was decreasing, while overseas demand increased every year - which made their primary focus finding more overseas buyers.

Ander is going to the Apimondia International World Honey Conference in Istanbul, Turkey next month and Japan later in the year to meet customers and further international sales.