56 | The True Honey Company Mãnuka honey from remote areas Virginia Wright Jim McMillan started up True Honey after flying over remote areas of pristine Mãnuka bush as a commercial helicopter pilot. PRODUCTION Your insurance sorted 06 834 4820 | crombielockwood.co.nz like TrueHoneykeepmoving Proud tohelpbusinesses Telephone: 07 985 6137 • International: +64 7 985 6137 • Mobile: 027 641 5523 Email: dave@realmedia.net.nz • www.realmedia.net.nz Specialists in : Packaging • Printing • Labelling • Global SupplyManagement Proud supplier to The True Honey Co. Before he started up ‘True Honey’ Jim McMillan spent a number of years flying his commercial helicopter over the length and breadth of New Zealand. Seeing remote areas of pristine Mãnuka bush gave him an idea, and The True Honey Company was born. Fast forward nine years and it’s a successful company specialising in producing high to ultra-high active Mãnuka honey from some of the most remote locations within New Zealand, as Jim explains. ‘ “Our strategy and approach from the beginning was to target areas not already in use for Mãnuka honey production, inaccessible by road. ”In essence, as untouched by humans as you’re likely to find. Given Jim’s aviation background it’s no surprise that from the start the plan was to fly all the hives in and out of some of New Zealand’s most unreachable locations with heavy concentrations of Mãnuka resource: remote areas of the Far North, the mountainous regions of the Central Plateau, the upper reaches of the Anatori River in the Tasman District. The list goes on. When the business began nine years ago it was production based, supplying honey to others for packaging and selling. After three years of extensive research into various aspects of the honey business, Jim and his team were ready to launch their own consumer-facing brand. They were determined to treat this ‘taonga’ with the respect it deserves. While his instinct told him that bees nourished by these remote stands of Mãnuka would produce exceptional honey, Jim worked with Dr. Peter Molan in the early days to back his hunch with science. Commonly abbreviated to MGO, methylglyoxal is the key compound found in Mãnuka honey that makes it unique and Dr. Molan is the scientist who discovered those unique properties. “Peter’s early research indicated that you needed over 300 mgms of methylglyoxal per kilogram of honey to deliver assured benefits. The True Honey Company doesn’t sell anything as a packaged product below 300 MGO or 300 mgms per kilogram of methylglyoxal present, which is 10.8 UMF,” says Jim Consumers are more used to seeing the UMF rating, which stands for Unique Mãnuka Factor, and there’s a conversion table relating the two. “UMF is a trust mark and involves other criteria as well, and you have to be a member to use it. Every batch of honey you produce has to be verified and provides customers with a high degree of confidence in your products authenticity,” says Jim. More research on Jim’s part, involving consumer workshops here and abroad, confirmed the need for better packaging including using glass not plastic. “We wanted to give Mãnuka Honey the mana, the respect, that it deserves and the consumers agreed.” He felt the plastic PET jars selling Mãnuka honey for $50 or $100 compared unfavourably with the often beautifully packaged wine
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