10 | REGIONAL NEWS TranzAlpine Honey Award sweet for honey producer TranzAlpine Honey was one of the first companies to be certified organic in 1993 when the BioGro certification was developed in NZ. T T Virginia Wright As its name suggests TranzAlpine Honey’s beehives can be found from the East Coast to the West Coast of the South Island and all along the route between. The same route taken on the scenic rail journey offered by its namesake the TranzAlpine Express. One of only nine organic honey producers in New Zealand out of a total of 6000 honey producers, TranzAlpine Honey has just won this year’s New Zealand Business Excellence in Export Award, which Yuriy Soshnikov sees as recognition of their successful penetration into the niche market for organic honey. Yiriy says they use a labour-intensive system of beekeeping “using no chemicals, and no heat treatment of honey, so it’s honey as raw as it can be when produced by organic producers”. “I don’t know what other companies do or don’t do but for us, we’re not corporate and we’re not owned by overseas investors, but as a small family business we export our honey pretty much around the world, including in some of the largest markets like the US and Asia. Our systems are well-developed and we’re growing every year. “The Newton family began honey production in 1910 as a hobby, catching wild swarms and using the bees to produce honey for themselves. The operation grew, and so did the family. “It’s a large family as well. Derek Newton is a fourth-generation beekeeper and my wife is his step-daughter,” says Yuriy. With Yuriy and Victoria now the fifth generation running the business, they’re producing and exporting organic honey to 28 countries around the world. Before the varroa mite arrived in New Zealand many honey operations were naturally organic but dealing with the mite means using chemicals or a lot of extra work as Yuriy explains. ‘We’re one of the few operators who continued. We had high losses of bees, but we manage by increasing our workload by around 30% compared to what it was before. We were one of the first companies to be certified organic in 1993 when the BioGro certification was developed in New Zealand using the European model.” While the varroa mite poses no threat to the consumer or to the honey itself it’s lethal to successful bee breeding. There are organically approved measures, such as the oldest and most well-known method using oxalic acid whether in strips or by fumigating, which can be done at a particular point in the honey producing cycle. The newest methods involve isolating the queens and managing the broodless period to “... we’re not corporate and we’re not owned by overseas investors, but as a small family business we export our honey pretty much around the world ...” protect the larvae from the mite at the crucial time in their life cycle. Whatever the method, producing honey organically now involves checking the hives every 10 days during spring and autumn when the bees are most vulnerable. Being organic also means that TranzAlpine Honey must have certificates from farmers within a five kilometre radius of their hives confirming that the bees haven’t been exposed to pesticides when pollinating their crops. It feeds directly into their choice of locations for their hives. “We don’t collect organic honey around mid-Canterbury, most of it comes from Banks Peninsula, North Canterbury high country, and the West Coast. We select remote areas with no cropping and not much farming, at the most there might be some high-country grazing,” says Yuriy. “It doesn’t mean that there’s never any chemicals used there, but that during the honey harvest time there’s been no exposure, and there are some chemicals you can’t have any exposure to even in the off-season.” They export around 80% of their honey, sell online, and supply to other producers such as organic ice-cream producers or bakeries. With around 2000 beehives in operation, which last year produced just over 70,000 kg’s of honey, and their production growing yearon-year by between 10% and 13%, TranzAlpine Honey has no intention of resting on its laurels. Large conventional honey producers such as those run by big corporations with 30,000 to 40,000 beehives may average 25 kg’s per hive, whereas TranzAlpine Honey expect at a minimum 50 kgs per hive. “We’re always thinking about how to increase production, looking for better locations for our hives. We shift hives from one location to another to follow the harvest, we’re proactive so we can collect double harvest from the same hives.” With the Export Excellence Award safely tucked away they’re now in the second round of the New Zealand International Business of the Year 2022. “It’s one of New Zealand’s biggest awards and if we got that it would be a big achievement for us,” says Yuriy. TranzAlpine Honey will find out whether they’re the winner of that award later this year at a ceremony to be held in Auckland in October. C H A R T E R E D A C C O U N T A N T S Hooker Associates Limited Proudly supporting Tranzalpine Honey for all their accounting & business consulting advice. Hooker Associates Limited - Chartered Accountants 4 Bounty Street, Christchurch | Phone: 03 374 5448 E-mail: info@hookerca.co.nz | www.hookerassociates.co.nz
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=