What is it about this honey that sets it apart from the pack?
Honey is often quite expensive, depending on your location. Mānuka honey, however, is something else entirely. Mānuka honey is known for its rich and distinguishable taste, as well as for costing about 100 times more that regular honey. So, what is it about mānuka that makes it worth such a ridiculous amount of money?
Mānuka honey, in its purest form, can cost up to $99 per 100 grams. This is because the mānuka plant is extremely rare, and is only found in New Zealand. Mānuka honey comes from the nectar in the Leptospermum scoparium (mānuka) flower. Mānuka is actually a Maori word, and there is currently no way to grow it outside of New Zealand and Australia.
When it comes to the ridiculous cost of mānuka honey, the harvesting process completes the picture. Harvesting mānuka is not an easy task. The mānuka flower is only open for 12 days out of the year, and extracting it is difficult. In some cases, farmers need to use helicopters to collect the honey. Also, while there are some mānuka plants in Australia, New Zealand alone accounts for the overwhelming majority of global production. Exports of the special honey are currently worth USD $204 million per year, but this figure is expected to rise to at least $800 million by 2028.
