10 minute read
Buzz over manuka brand
Buzz over mānuka branding
Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz
THE head of New Zealand’s mānuka honey association has reacted with puzzlement to United Kingdom news reports of British beekeepers becoming tangled up in its claim to the term “mānuka” in honey labelling.
British newspaper the Telegraph recently reported that honey manufacturer Rowse has asked lawyers to fight NZ’s application to trademark “mānuka honey” and its composition.
The UMF Honey Association has lodged an application to have the brand protected with the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO).
But UMF spokesperson John Rawcliffe says there is nothing new in the report, and that UK appeal documents were filed back in 2017 when the association first sought the protection, along with an appeal by Australian beekeepers and honey producers.
Rowse claims the protection will have a negative impact on supply and push prices higher for the high-value health-giving product.
But Rawcliffe says this was a diversion from UMF’s efforts to protect an indigenous descriptor.
“There is nothing new in this story. I would like to grow champagne too, but I can’t because it is protected, and this is just what we are seeking for mānuka,” Rawcliffe said.
He says efforts by the UK and Australian beekeepers to stymie NZ’s attempt at protecting the name would be aired in court in the UK in September when both parties’ official appeal against the protection would be heard.
Rawcliffe labelled that confrontation a precedent setting encounter that would have long reaching consequences for the ability of NZ to protect this and future indigenous brand names, including other honey types like rewarewa.
“The reality is that if we are to create added value for honey that puts it above a sugar price, it has to have a New Zealand story behind it,” he said.
Rawcliffe says he was familiar with the British estate Tregothnan, which was a leading voice in the UK opposition to mānuka protection.
The property has produced mānuka honey for 20 years, with 50 hives and a line of limited edition mānuka honey.
“Having been there and seeing the plants, they have only a few plants they bought back from NZ in the 1800s. They are a very small drop in the bucket compared to native NZ plantings,” he said.
The UMF association is also continuing with its efforts to also gain protection for mānuka in China, and hoped to see a resolution made there before year’s end.
“In the short-term, these efforts are just an attempt to rip off mānuka. The Australians learnt how to walk all over Uluru, and now they are attempting to walk all over mānuka,” he said.
Apiculture NZ chief executive Karin Kos agreed with Rawcliffe that the UK move had been known about for as long as the Australian opposition.
“From our perspective we have seen the support for protecting mānuka across all aspects of the industry, at an iwi, government and industry level. When you have all the players in NZ working on this, it is a compelling argument to protect it,” she said.
CASE: Apiculture New Zealand chief executive Karin Kos says there’s a compelling argument to protect NZ’s mānuka brand.
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John Rawcliffe UMF Honey Association
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WORKPLACE SAFETY: Southland farmer Sam Hodsell says people are bound to make mistakes on-farm, so it’s important to have preventative measures in place.
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Putting safeguards in place
2021 Otago-Southland FMG Young Farmer of the Year Sam Hodsell says it’s critical to identify and manage workplace risks on their farm – but he and his family are also actively putting tangible measures in place to help protect people if someone does make a mistake.
“For instance, we’ve recently purchased and had big red buoys screwed onto all our irrigation pipes,” Sam, who 50:50 sharemilks with his partner Jenna for his parents Craig and Gaewyn on the 250ha family farm at Taramoa in Southland, said.
“That was learning from a near miss and we wanted to make sure the pipes were highly visible and they certainly are now.
“We have also benefited from productivity gains due to saving time looking for lost pipes.”
Sam sourced the buoys from New Zealand CeeMee company, which sells innovative farming safety solutions. The Hodsells are now also looking at installing rollover crush protection on quad bikes.
“My parents have always been very aware about health and safety,” he said.
“Growing up, I learnt a lot from seeing the measures my dad put in place on-farm.
“We have a health and safety plan, training register and incident report.
“We used online templates provided by farming industry organisations to draw those up and it was pretty straightforward.
“We sat down as a team and identified our risks and talked about how we could manage, minimise or eliminate them.
“Identifying and managing risk is also ongoing. For instance, one of our critical risks is working with large animals. We provide training for our people, to make sure they have the skills to safely do all aspects of their work. With livestock that includes training people to work in safe ways around animals and also how to read an animal’s behaviour. However, we recognise that it takes a long time to pick that up.”
Fatigue has also been identified as a critical risk on-farm and over the past two years, Sam and Jenna have increased their staff numbers to help address that, with resulting benefits.
“Fatigue is one of the biggest risks from my point of view,” he said.
“Employing extra staff means more of the workload is shared. We talk with people about how they are feeling, and if they are tired, I will say go home and get some rest.
“I know if I’m feeling tired or under the weather, I don’t do the best job and there’s a risk of taking shortcuts. I don’t want anyone working if they are feeling like that.
“That’s not just about health and safety, it’s also about performance. It’s costing us more in wages but we get that return back in productivity and then maybe a bit more. I think it’s good for staff retention too – people enjoy their work more.
“We have only been back sharemilking on this property for three years – which my parents have owned for 15 years – but the whole team has been with us for two years now.”
Vehicles and machinery are also recognised as critical risks and guards have been put on machinery.
“People can make mistakes, so you need those safeguards in place, such as having a guard on the PTO shaft on the tractor,” he said.
“We have expectations around use of vehicles, including always wearing a seatbelt, and using helmets at all times. We’re lucky in that the farm is pretty flat, but accidents can still happen and we want to provide the best protection if they do.”
Sam Hodesell Farmer
Future drought could hit profits
NEW research forecasts a strong relationship between potential intense future drought in New Zealand, with drops in farm profit.
The research, by the Deep South Challenge and Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, with the support of Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, draws on 70,000 tax returns and temperature and soil moisture data, to understand the historical relationship between local weather and farm profits in both the dairy and sheep and beef industries.
For controlling prices and farm management, the research shows a clear effect. Extrapolating on the clear relationship, future climate change scenarios were tested to understand how much future farm profit might be under pressure, due to reduced soil moisture and increased temperatures.
Year-on-year drought is still uncommon in NZ, giving farmers opportunities to recover financially, mentally and environmentally. However, uncontrolled climate change is likely to bring more severe and far more frequent drought.
Under a high climate change scenario – the pathway representing little climate action and high economic growth – sheep and beef farmers could see a profit loss of up to 54% by the end of the century, subject to a high degree of uncertainty.
Analysis suggests that sheep and beef farms are vulnerable to high temperatures as well as soil moisture loss, while dairy shows an unclear effect of high temperatures, but is clearly sensitive to soil moisture loss, according to this modelling.
Looking only at changes in soil moisture, both dairy and sheep and beef show a decrease in profit by 2100 – an average of 20% for dairy and 7% for sheep and beef.
A more moderate climate change scenario suggests more moderate losses considering soil moisture changes alone.
Manaaki Whenua research colead Dr Kendon Bell says that one potential use of the research results is to better understand how climate change might encourage farmers and growers to implement adaptation measures, or even to change what they farm and where. Due to large capital investments, it’s difficult for farmers to change the way they use their land, while the creeping pace of climate change will not likely force land-use change in the near future. Yet this research suggests that landuse change should at least be on the cards in some places.
Bell says what’s important is the relative attractiveness of animal versus other land uses.
“To gain a full understanding of how climate change might affect land-use pressures, we require profit-weather functions for all relevant land uses, in addition to those provided here for dairy and sheep and beef,” Bell said.
He says animal agriculture is a major contributor to both climate change and water pollution, so understanding the extent to which climate change might affect this baseline over time is important for policy considerations over the coming decades.
“Understanding the scale of the expected impacts of climate change across all sectors is key for central government when considering future budgets for adaptation support.
“If, as a hypothetical example, the scale of expected net damages to agriculture was 1% of the expected net harm to human health, it would be difficult to justify putting 50% of central government’s adaptation budget into agriculture.
“However, these quantitative comparisons are not yet straightforward, because the underlying quantitative studies have not yet been executed across all sectors.”
LOOKING AHEAD: Kendon Bell says new research could help provide a better understanding of how climate change might encourage farmers and growers to implement adaptation measures.
