Tasman Honey abuzz with national award

Owners of a Wakefield honey business are “stoked” after tasting sweet success in a national honey competition.

Tasman Honey combed the bronze award in the product packaging category at the 2023 Apiculture New Zealand National Honey Competition for its semi-soft honey.

Co-owner Wendy Lane says it was the first time they had entered the competition with a desire to show their sustainability focus.

“We thought we had a really innovative packaging idea, and we thought we would showcase it and see what the rest of the country thought,” she says.

“It’s all made from a natural paper product and plant-based lining, so it’s replacing chemical plastics in the packaging, and it’s more sustainable, more ecological, lower footprint, and it’s what customers are starting to look towards.”

Wendy said the process to making its semi-soft honey enabled the use of its eco-friendly packaging.

“It’s a trade secret, but we have created a more unique process so [the honey] stays soft for the life of the honey rather than crystalising hard as a lot of raw natural honeys do,” she says. “This is still raw and natural, it hasn’t been overheated but it remains soft, which is why we’re able to use it in the softer Kraft packaging.”

Wendy says the business, which was established in 2013, produced nine other honey products with the help of its “millions” of bees kept within about 200 hives stationed at the Nelson Lakes and other Nelson-Tasman areas.

“We’re really happy with the feedback we’ve got from the customer base, and it’s great to get some recognition for what we’ve done, which has been a lot of hard work over the past few years,” she said.

The awards saw some 700 delegates from the apiculture industry come together in Rotorua last month for the annual Apiculture New Zealand Conference. The awards were announced before the conference.

Head judge for the awards, Maureen Conquer, said that the quality of honey improved again this year, with very few points separating the top three entries.