Older beekeepers in NZ will tell you that until the late 1990s/early 00s, it wasn't even considered commercially viable and was only suitable as winter feed for bees, because all anybody wanted to buy was clover. There was not much space in the market for darker honeys from the NZ bush and scragglier hill country. This fit perfectly with the mindset of thousands of NZ farmers, who were diligently clearing the mānuka off their land because it was "scrub" that could be replaced with grass. Fast-forward to the year 2020 C.E. and Comvita is doing mānuka plantations...

Not only was there not much market from it it is also quite difficult to extract.

Will trade manuka for maple syrup.

I've read that Canadian maple syrup is the cure for post-election-anxiety.

At least that's how I figure we should market it to our friends down south!

> Canadian maple syrup is the cure for post-election-anxiety.

It's been working wonders for me :-)

> "Exactly, manuka honey was always just ordinary honey in NZ!"

Not any more. Cheaper to buy it in the UK I reckon!