> And thus a myth and a legend were born.

Well, to be fair, manuka honey *is* an acquired taste.  And I'm one of
those that do like the flavour.

Dealing with the production of manuka (dark, strong, thixotropic) was
always a marketing problem for NZ, going back 100 years now.

But the findings that started the whole thing (Cliff Van Eaton's
excellent "Manuka" book describes it well) was related to the
unexplained activity of some manuka.

Most honeys have some peroxide activity, producing H2O2 when diluted.
But what Dr Peter Molan found was that some of the manuka tested had
*something* else.  That is, some of the manuka samples were still
incredibly antibiotic, even after the H2O2 was removed.

So there is no doubt whatsoever that this manuka honey *is* more
antibiotic than other honeys.  But that does not translate to saying it
is a miracle food and might do things for your overall health because of
that.  Though Peter Molan had some incredible results treating mastitis
in cows with manuka honey and even looked at it for Helicobacter pylori
(cause of stomach ulcers), I don't think there have ever been trials to
show advantage over any other honey when taken orally.  (I gotta say, I
was amazed at how much it could be diluted and still have the antibiotic
factors.)

Peter was an amazingly engaging speaker, and he had some of the
absolutely most disgusting photos to illustrate such things as bad
wounds and mastitis that I have ever seen an audience cringe and look
away from.

And then, I'm still not sure how, it took off...  So beekeepers took the
money.  And massively increased our beekeeper and hive numbers.  At one
point, I heard that 90% of all bkprs had been in the industry for less
than 5 years.  That was scary and sometimes unpleasant.

The last 10 years have been some of the best (financially) in the
industry's history, and some of the worst.  We are now facing bkprs
walking away from their hives, as they have not been able to sell honey
these last few years at the same price levels.  Some have several
seasons of production still to sell.  Perhaps even worse, it gave bkprs
a perception that our *other* honey should be going up in value in the
same way.  NZ produces and exports *excellent* white clover honey - but
the world market responds "Well done" but no higher price than other
similar honeys.

We had hoped that figuring out something to do with manuka might raise
the overall return to NZ bkprs, but personally I never expected the
export craziness that followed.  I don't know that many bkprs did.

Nick Wallingford
Tauranga, NZ

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