A MESSAGE FROM MANUKA DOCTOR...
"Ever since we decided to offer our FREE PALLET promotion, we have been met by two different trains of thought.
- Where do I sign up?
- Why are you offering me free product?
The latter reaction is somewhat of surprise, as we thought buyers would jump at the opportunity. With a little digging, we found that some buyers were apprehensive because the train of thought was that:
- The deal is unsustainable
- We were bringing down the value of the category
- Such and such (insert competitor brand or expert customer) told us that multifloral mānuka is not genuine.
So, let’s dispel these notions. This promotion is here to stay for the foreseeable future. Smart harvesting and buying, mainly for our export markets, has seen our supply of honey remain constant and bountiful, which affords us the ability to supply and offer it to our retail customers. The next point that we’re bringing down the value of the category is an interesting one for us, as it seems that some buyers see their customer’s best interests being served by offering the same product at twice the price. After being in this industry for a few years now and trying a myriad different promotions and promotional offerings, the general feedback from stores is that they want the best price for their customer…. And that’s what we’re offering.
The third point is also very contentious, as it seems that (from experience), multiple complaints in the market have stemmed from anticompetitive conduct from competitors. For example some retailers have received correspondence from a competitor using the pseudonym Robert/Roberta Fisk who attempts to fraudulently mislead the retailer into believing that multifloral manuka is not genuine. Fortunately, this misinformation is the easiest to dispel as there is a whole government webpage that outlines the New Zealand law on exactly what multifloral mānuka is.
To give a brief overview, in early 2018, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), announced their new standards for what can be defined as mānuka honey. This classification system was based on four chemical markers and one DNA marker and was based on research that spanned three years. The result is definitive set of legal criteria by which mānuka can now be measured and labelled as either monofloral or multifloral mānuka.
Currently, these new legal criteria are only applicable to companies that are exporting mānuka overseas, as a decision is yet to be made about the application of the criteria in the domestic market. Honey being sold domestically does not currently need to meet the aforementioned export standard. So, whilst the honey may be labelled as mānuka, the product may still not be eligible for export as monofloral or multifloral mānuka honey.
As a company, Manuka Doctor decided that we would adopt these standards wholesale as we are well aware that most of the honey that we sell domestically is most likely destined for overseas. So, the products that we sell domestically are labelled according to the legal export standard and will meet the necessary criteria. We have developed a range of products that span from our 40+, 85+ and 100+ multifloral mānuka honey to our 250+, 550+, 700+, 850+, 970+ and 1050+ monofloral mānuka honey.
So, to give our customers confidence in what they are buying, we have set up a “Track My Batch” page on our website which allows you to enter in our batch numbers and retrieve the MGO and MPI marker reports for any given batch. This function is still being populated, so, if a batch doesn’t show, just get in touch and we can upload the files.
If your goal is to increase sales and decrease costs, get in touch and see what we can do for you.
Please email orders to aeneas@manukadr.co.nz or chanray@manukadr.co.nz.
