TASMANIAN Liberal senator Richard Colbeck has hit out at NZ for a “smart alec stunt” in trying to gain exclusive rights to the ‘manuka honey’ trademark over Australia.
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Senator Colbeck – a former long-serving Assistant Agriculture Minister – made a hard hitting statement in the Senate yesterday warning decision makers in the UK that the trans-Tasman trade dispute was ‘complete absurdity’.
NZ has applied for trademark rights to use the ‘manuka honey’ brand but Senator Colbeck discredited the Kiwi claim as being a ‘marketing exercise’, while urging cooperation, rather than a fight between the two nations, saying there the market was big enough for all to share.
“It's a very important time in history for the Australian industry, particularly given attempts by our friends across the ditch in New Zealand to effectively register manuka honey as a trademark and as something of their own that is produced only in New Zealand,” he said.
“In my mind the Kiwis should not be allowed to get away with this.”
Senator Colbeck said the product came from a plant that originated in Tasmania and had a “history going back a long way”.
He said manuka honey was also an important product for the Australian honey industry, particularly the Tasmanian honey industry.
“The suggestion that New Zealand should be able to trademark the name, quite frankly, to me is a complete absurdity,” he said.
“If I could send a clear message to our friends in the UK, where they are attempting to do that right now, it would be, 'don't fall for this’.
“The product clearly originates from Australia and Tasmania.
“I say to those in the UK and in New Zealand, we don't mind sharing the name of the product.
“The global market for this variety of honey is big enough for us both.
“It is a very high-value product and it has medicinal properties, which is one of the things that make it valuable.
“They don't have to pull some sort of smart alec stunt, like trying to trademark the name for themselves.”
Senator Colbeck said NZ and Australian industry and producers could “work together”.
“I know the view of the Australian Manuka Honey Association is that this market is big enough for us all,” he said.
“We can work together to market this great quality, high-value product around the world into the key markets, particularly the UK and Asia.
“We can share that name between us.
“We don't have to try to do each other over, as is occurring by New Zealand trying to trademark the name against its originator for their own gain.
“In my view this is purely an attempted marketing exercise by New Zealand.
“As I said, they should not be allowed to get away with it.
“I encourage them to work cooperatively with us.”
Senator Colbeck said the leptospermum plants from which the manuka honey derives were first recorded in Tasmania back in the 1880s.
He said the first manuka honey was recorded as being produced in South Australia from plants deriving from Tasmania in the 1830s.
But he said “shame” on NZ for trying to claim the manuka honey trademark.
“They should be working cooperatively with us, as our industry is prepared to do with them, so that we can both take advantage of the value of this industry in high-value global markets,” he said.
“Supply of this product in the market is quite obviously limited by the availability of the manuka trees - the leptospermum and the other varieties that work with that.
“I urge the UK not to fall for that, but to allow us to get on and work together.”
Senator Colbeck, along with Agriculture and Water Resources Minister David Littleproud and Tasmanian Liberal Senator David Bushby, last week announced $165,000 in funding for the Australian Manuka Honey Association, allocated under the Agricultural Trade and Market Access Cooperation program.
He said that funding would assist and support the Association to address some ‘emerging issues’ in international markets and to share manuka honey production methods overseas.
Mr Littleproud said the grant, funded under the Agricultural Competitiveness White Paper, would help Australian producers and exporters raise awareness of the unique quality of Australia’s manuka honey.
He said the funding would support the spread of Australian manuka honey to the medical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and nutraceutical markets.
“Industry will be able to share the unique properties of Australian produced manuka honey and to develop a series of materials including a website and visit key markets to share production knowledge.
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Colin Bettles
Has been the Canberra Bureau Chief for Fairfax Agricultural Media since 2010 - survived the hung parliament - former media manager at Western Australian Cricket Association now covering national agricultural and rural issues in federal politics.
Has been the Canberra Bureau Chief for Fairfax Agricultural Media since 2010 - survived the hung parliament - former media manager at Western Australian Cricket Association now covering national agricultural and rural issues in federal politics.
