Why a jar of special reserve manuka honey carries a S$588 price tag

At S$588 (US$438) for a 250g jar, Comvita’s Special Reserve UMF 25+ Manuka Honey needs some explaining. It’s why I took to the task of writing this in the first place. To what extent has inflation disrupted the value of honey, I wondered melodramatically.

To paraphrase an old trope, not all honey is created equal. Some are made by bees from the nectar of pretty wildflowers; others come from bee hives situated in citrus groves or close to trees whose seasonal flowers impart unique flavour.

Manuka honey? That’s the reserve of bees who collect nectar from the Leptospermum scoparium plant, commonly called a manuka bush. Indigenous to New Zealand, manuka flowers bloom for a short two-week to six-week period, peaking at the beginning of summer. In that time, each flower may only open for as few as five days, shortening the window for bees to collect its precious nectar.

But before we get into the intricacies of harvesting pollen for special reserve honey, allow me a bit of sweet talk, if you will.

Honey has long been used as medicine throughout history, most commonly as a wound dressing thanks to its antimicrobial properties, namely high sugar and low pH. This is why mould never seems to grow on the surface of that long-forgotten jar we’ve all nursed in our pantry at one time or another.

While all honey has antibacterial properties, manuka honey has higher levels of bioactive properties called “unique manuka factor” (UMF). According to the Unique Manuka Factor Honey Association (UMHFA), New Zealand’s manuka honey has more than 2,300 natural compounds, such as antioxidants, minerals and vitamins — far more than the 180 compounds in regular honey.

Comvita, a New Zealand-based pioneer of Manuka honey founded in 1974, adds that authentic manuka honey has more than 30 unique compounds not found in other honey types. Among them is its active agent methylglyoxal (MGO), the levels of which indicate the strength of manuka honey’s antibacterial properties.

MGO can, however, be synthetically made, which is where leptosperin, a natural plant compound, comes in. Found only in manuka honey, leptosperin is used as a marker to identify true manuka honey from New Zealand.

Manuka honey’s benefits are well-studied by science. Some research has shown that it can enhance wound healing, provide relief from coughs, and improve digestive symptoms like gastric ulcers and inflammatory bowel disease.

“There are a few things in to keep in mind, though,” said Angena Teo, senior dietitian at NOVI Health, a tech-enabled chronic disease, weight management and preventive healthcare company in Singapore. “The sugar content in manuka honey may raise blood glucose levels in those with diabetes. And although manuka honey has antibacterial effects, people should not self-medicate with honey products. Any infections should be examined by a physician or a qualified healthcare professional for proper care.”

Suffice it to say, anyone allergic to honey should stay away from it — manuka or otherwise.

So what exactly makes Comvita’s Special Reserve UMF 25+ Manuka Honey worth its steep price tag? To start, the extremely delicate manuka flowers that are purportedly sensitive to the slightest variations in climate, weather and pollution, all of which can shrink the already small window for harvesting nectar.

Only when the weather is stable (and when is it, these days?), without extreme exposure to rainfall and wind, can the highest-quality nectar be yielded to create honey of this grade.

Harvesting thus requires precision planning. Hives must be nurtured throughout the year and carefully relocated just before the manuka bloom begins. Manuka forests, located in remote parts of New Zealand (“some of which are only accessible by helicopter,” says Comvita), must also be cultivated and reforested to maintain the honey source.

“In addition to the rarity of this bloom, producing and harvesting manuka honey takes a significant amount of work. For one, it takes bees about 23,000 individual trips to collect enough nectar for one 500g jar of manuka honey,” said a Comvita spokesperson. It’s a good thing then that the company has 40,000 hives that draw from manuka bushes across New Zealand’s central North Island volcanic plateau and the Northland hills.

The S$588 price tag then, reflects this effort. That said, S$588 is not the highest you can cough up for a jar of manuka honey. Other special reserve manuka honeys with UMF of up to 32+ can run upwards of S$1,500 for 250g. In Comvita’s case, the rarity of its Special Reserve UMF 25+ Manuka Honey means only 400 jars are available throughout Southeast Asia, with 100 jars in Singapore.