The battle to retain New Zealand control over the term mānuka honey is not over, despite a high court appeal in the United Kingdom being abandoned by local producers.
Australian Mānuka Honey Growers (AMHG) this week announced that legal proceedings by NZ’s Mānuka Honey Appellation Society (MHAS) in the UK and Europe have collapsed, and they are now free to sell their produce in those parts of the world under the globally recognised “mānuka” name.
MHAS discontinued its High Court appeal in the UK just before Christmas, and the UK Intellectual Property Office’s 2021 rejection of MHAS’s application to trademark the words “mānuka honey” will stand. Earlier, NZ producers also withdrew their application for the “mānuka honey” certification mark in the European Union.
“Leptospermum, the plant which produces mānuka, is a native of both New Zealand and Australia, and the term mānuka honey has long been used in Australia to describe this unique honey. Australian growers have every right to use the word to describe their produce, as upheld by the UK Courts,” AMHG chair Paul Callander said.
Unique Mānuka Factor Honey Association chief executive John Rawcliffe confirmed both challenges have been withdrawn, but he warned that local honey producers are not ready to give up.
The Mānuka Charitable Trust will now re-file both claims, based on more detailed information.
“The industry has still voted to continue the fight and they have been prepared to put their hands in their pockets for the next five years to do that,” Rawcliffe said.
“We have taken a lot of learning from this process. We know what we need to do, and what we need to do better .
“This was never going to be an easy journey. But this is a journey of generations.”
In September 2019 the MHAS was granted $5.7 million through the Provincial Growth Fund, including a $1.7m loan to help in its bid to secure international trademark rights.
The new legal action could cost up to $700,000 a year for the next five years, Rawcliffe said. Local producers believe the issue is too important not to fight for and “that is not accounting for what is right”.
“Mānuka is from New Zealand, just as champagne is from France.”
Mānuka Charitable Trust chair Pita Tipene previously told the Farmers Weekly that word “mānuka” is from te reo Māori and itself a taonga the group has a responsibility to protect.
Callander said the appeal withdrawal means there is no restraint or trademark on mānuka naming rights.
The international mānuka honey market is forecast to be worth about $1.27 billion in annual trade by 2027, and mānuka honey products can sell for between A$300-500 (about $325-541) per kilo. Callander said there is growing demand for the product both for consumption and for use in medicinal and wellbeing products, and the greater certainty in the UK and Europe will allow Australian mānuka growers to enjoy their share of this demand.
“This victory provides our industry with a noble precedent against some in New Zealand who are attempting to monopolise the term mānuka honey for their own commercial gain,”Callander said.
