NZ Honey Origin

Helping Beekeepers and Consumers Trace the
Origins of New Zealand Honeys


World First Honey Bee Research Project

Dr Mark Goodwin, New Zealand's very own world-renowned Apiculture Scientist, and his team, are working with beekeepers to undertake a project aimed at marketing New Zealand honey based on its percentage of nectar.

We believe it will revolutionize the honey industry in much the same way that coffee has gone from cheap tins of instant to the vast array of choices and origin stories we have on the shelves today.

This is a 3 to 5 year project which aims to market the true origins of New Zealand's honey.

"This is a world first" says Dr Mark Goodwin.
"It may even change the way the world classifies honey".

We are currently organising funding but we need to hear from beekeepers, citizens, groups, schools and anyone else interested - both young and old, who are interested in helping us by collecting bees off flowers.

Anyone interested in being part of this exciting project, by means of participation or providing co-funding, feel free to contact us.


Honey Characterisation Project Aims

  • Taking NZ's honey from generic to world renowned
  • Expanding and diversifying the range of honeys on the shelf
  • Being able to identify the % of the main nectars in a honey giving it a unique flavour
  • Changing consumers taste palates like wine/coffee
  • Educating the palate to the range of honey flavours available
  • Enabling consumers to repeat buy on a known blend of nectars knowing that the flavour will be similar

How can you help?

We need Volunteers and Sponsors

New Zealand will need to be divided up into regions, cities and possibly towns. We will need hundreds of people to collect samples for the project as we are aiming to have 100 people collect 30 bee samples of each plant species. So if we are targeting 10 different plants then we will require 1,000 people.

Every sample no matter where in the country it is collected from will add to the data to ensure we have a statistically significant sample size for each plant species targeted. It will also help us identify if there is any regionality.

What’s more, we want as many people as possible to support the project with funding – be it $50 to several thousand dollars per annum to show co-funders that we have both Industry and citizen support for this project.

Our Sponsors

Some of Our Sponsors

bee

~10000

NZ Beekeepers

~22000

Tonnes of Honey

~1000

Volunteers Needed

The Project

Honey Origin Project