Why Mānuka Honey Is So Expensive | So Expensive

this isn't just any old honey it's manuka honey and in its purest form it can cost up to $99 per hundred grams that's more than a hundred times the price of normal honey so why is it so expensive [Music] manuka honey is known for being earthier richer and more viscous than many other honeys it comes from the nectar of the flower leptospirosis Cap areum also known as manuka which is only native to New Zealand and manuka in fact is a Maori word the fact that it comes from New Zealand that gives it a premium just to start with because the bee travels after about six kilometres to collect to this honey and so this honey is representative of the environment and that environment as of New Zealand Otero the plant itself and the honey is very very rare out of all the honey's in the world it probably represents 1% of all the world honey's it's difficult to harvest it's only a two to six week harvesting period and the flower is only open for uni for 12 days and in New Zealand we have wind and we have rain and all the rest of it so there's a lot of luck involved and getting the BU or a lot of effort from the beekeeper and for some years there are no there is no honey production for some beekeepers and we have to go to the big extent also I'm using helicopters to collect this honey although manuka bushes can also be found in Australia New Zealand accounts for almost all of the world's production with exports worth 204 million dollars and expected to quadruple to 800 million by 2028 New Zealand's honey is protected by a quality standard there's safeguards manuka special properties this honey is an expensive honey and anything that is expensive people will try and copy people will try and mimic or people will try and cheat so a lot of the cost here isn't actually in the protection of it or the research so we know it's unique we know it's from New Zealand we can identify we fought labs around the world to be able to do this identification the New Zealand government has set up a standard to say what is mono granny so how does the grading system work and what exactly are you looking for in manuka honey we spoke to dr. Adrienne Charlton from fara science a lab in the north of England where manuka honey is tested to identify two unique compounds as standards we will test for three compounds dihydroxyacetone which is owned as DHA we thought also known as MgO and hydroxymethyl food for all HMF these are the basic tests that we we would undertake to make sure that manuka honey contains the antimicrobial characteristics that the consumer would expect we could detect them but we can also measure the concentration of them and that's done using UV light to detect a particular wavelength individual compounds each compound has slightly different properties but because of the issues in the past with potential fraud there's a suite of other tests included in Tesla's compound such as left sparing which is a marker those unique to the nectar of left spoonski Parian we can trace then the honey back to its botanical origin the family came from when you pick up a jar of manuka honey the markers can be confusing so how do you know that it's the real deal so in some cases their labeling for the concentration of a compound so mg o 300 would indicate 300 milligrams of me third world so in that particular pots of honey per kilogram to NPA which is non peroxide activity that's that's related to the method locus of concentration but it's a more direct measure at the antimicrobial activity of deep honey other other marks such as um f the quality mark that if you can see a particular stamp on a product that has been tested and assured to a certain standard so that's different to actually label in it with the concentration of a particular compound another factor that's driving up the price is the use of manuka honey and health and beauty products its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties are said to soothe and nourish the skin and it's also said to help with blemishes and acne isn't that really the case there's been a number of studies that have tried to determine the health benefits of manuka honey and there are some very positive results and certainly in terms of antimicrobial activity we can show that that the manuka honey has antimicrobial activity in the laboratory but those clinical trials over a long period of time have not been undertaken today as of yet but there are lots of reports that indicates manuka honey has benefits so the jury's still out on maneuvers medicinal properties but that hasn't stopped its popularity and manuka honey is serious business the prices and demand for the honey is so high that the New Zealand police have received hundreds of reports of bee hives or honey being stolen and even reports of bees being poisoned so if you do manage to get your hands on the jar does it actually taste different from normal honey that is delicious the flavors really strong it's very like very thick compared to normal honey it's got a kind of chest naughty flavor it's not as sweet as usual honey it's really smooth the taste is pretty similar to what I'm used to the texture is very interesting it's very very thick always like creamy is manuka honey really worth a hundred times more than other honey that's for you to judge but what's for certain is that no other honey in the world is so rare and unique that it needs to pass by a lab before being sold you

Channel: Business Insider

Views: 6,248,161

Rating: 4.8656158 out of 5

Keywords: manuka honey, maori, nectar, luxury, expensive, UK, bees, Business News, Video, new zealand, australia, food, Original, Business Insider, honey, honeybee

Id: j6bGZXk6F2E

Length: 6min 14sec (374 seconds)

Published: Sat May 25 2019