Market Opportunity: Kanuka’s Untapped Commercial Potential

In an industry that constantly talks about premiumisation, differentiation, and value-add, kanuka may be the most overlooked opportunity in New Zealand honey. While Mānuka has earned global fame, kanuka sits in the background; abundant, uniquely New Zealand, scientifically promising, and commercially under-realised. It’s an untapped opportunity.

Kanuka’s greatest strength is that it exists in a space with real scientific performance but almost no market definition. In other words: the world is ready for kanuka; it’s just waiting for someone to tell its story.

A Honey With Premium Characteristics But No Premium Price (Yet)

Kanuka demonstrates proven immunostimulatory and anti-inflammatory activity and has distinctive chemistry. However, due to lack of standardised grading system, certification, or consumer-facing story, it is often sold as:

• multifloral manuka,

• blends, or

• generic native bush honey.

  
  

This means the value built into the honey at the biological level never gets translated into market value. Kanuka is a specialty honey being priced like a commodity not because of its quality, but because of its lack of market knowledge and definition.

The commercial gap between kanuka’s intrinsic performance and its market perception may be one of the largest in the NZ honey sector. Closing that gap represents a significant commercial opportunity.

A New Category With No Global Competition

Kanuka is produced only in New Zealand. That alone gives it country-of-origin exclusivity, a feature global markets consistently reward. Unlike mānuka, kanuka also benefits from a clean slate. There are:

• no trademark disputes,

• no global competitors,

• no crowded landscape, and

• no complex legacy grading systems to work around.

It is rare to find an export product that is both scientifically interesting and commercially unclaimed. Kanuka honey is one of those rare cases.

Defining the category early from activity benchmarks to sensory profiles to provenance, positions New Zealand producers as the authoritative source before anyone else even enters the discussion.

Global Buyers Want Fresh Stories With Real Science

Mānuka is powerful, but it’s no longer new. Retail buyers, importers, and health distributors across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East are increasingly looking for the next innovation in honey, something with strong provenance, measurable performance, and a compelling narrative.

Kanuka fits the brief perfectly:

• Pitching it as a close relative of mānuka, which gives it immediate recognisability.

• Its anti-inflammatory properties arise from different mechanisms, which gives it genuine novelty.

• Its story is not yet defined, giving marketers room to build a fresh identity from the ground up.

  
  

Consumers respond to honeys that feel both familiar and innovative. Kanuka has the credibility of Manuka’s “native NZ wellness” halo while offering something distinct enough to stand on its own.

Potential to Lead New Product Categories

Kanuka’s bioactivity opens doors far beyond table honey. Like Manuka, it has potential applications in:

• skincare and topical formulations,

• soothing and anti-inflammatory wellness products,

• natural wound-care inspired innovations,

• functional foods and supplements.

  
  

Global formulators are actively searching for the next premium natural ingredient, especially one backed by scientific research rather than marketing spin. Kanuka can be positioned as that next-generation hero ingredient.

The Pricing Opportunity

At present, kanuka is priced below its potential because it is being treated as an undefined product category. Once research-backed benchmarks and activity grading systems are established, the pricing landscape changes dramatically.

Moving from “generic bush honey” to “defined anti-inflammatory monofloral kanuka honey” could create a pricing uplift anywhere from 2× to 10×, just as standardised MGO/UMF systems transformed mānuka’s value.

The honey hasn’t changed but the market perception, structure, and evidence behind it have. Kanuka is perfectly positioned for the same evolution.

No One Has Claimed the Story Yet; A Rare First-Mover Advantage

Perhaps the most compelling aspect of the kanuka opportunity is this: no one has told its story yet. That means the early champions, the scientists, researchers, beekeepers, and exporters who are defining its properties now will shape how kanuka is understood globally. This is a chance to build the narrative correctly from the beginning, rather than retrofitting structure onto an existing market.

A kanuka classification system, activity benchmark, provenance story, and export strategy will ultimately define how the world values this honey.

In Summary

Kanuka represents one of the most promising, undervalued opportunities in New Zealand honey because it is:

• scientifically impressive,

• commercially underdeveloped,

• globally unique,

• narratively fresh,

• and not yet constrained by legacy systems or competition.

It isn’t here to compete with mānuka. It is here to complement it by strengthening the NZ honey export story and giving beekeepers and producers a fresh, high-value category with room to grow.

As the industry continues exploring how consumers respond to these innovations using Kanuka honey whether in a jar or in skin care or as a supplement, reliable, consistent testing becomes essential.

That’s where teams like ours at PAQ Laboratories come in to support the beekeepers, packers and exporters with AGP (Arabinogalactan protein) profiling and classification testing that helps them benchmark performance, understand their honey crop, and make data-driven decisions as they develop and refine their product offering.

With the right analytical support behind them, emerging products can move from the honey shed to the retail shelf.

Kanuka is more than a niche. It’s the next frontier.