I can't recall seeing it before, scary stuff.
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After some googling found some other interesting articles.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-...d-manuka-honey
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=11730260
Scary, but, then again, some of the stuff that gets sold as "manukau honey" is pretty scary too. There's probably about five years in it before the brand is irretrievably tarnished.
How many hectares of manuka have been planted in New Zealand in the last five years? In Australia?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...agne-of-honeys
Went and took a visitor to a souvenir shop in the city to buy some manuka honey to take home overseas.
Visitor instinctively asked for Comvita which interestingly enough, was not displayed prominently compared to all the other brands on sale.
Saleslady explained the UMF factor and recommended another brand (KiwiGold - very fancy packaging with gold lettering etc) explaining that it is registered with UMF Honey Association.
Visitor happy to buy KiwiGold brand as it was 10% cheaper and there was an extra 5% discount for buying a dozen.
Here's the interesting bit to me - if more and more of the shops selling manuka honey are prepared to spend time and effort to explain the UMF factor and steer customers to other cheaper brands, matter of time before Comvita feels the impact. Either Comvita loses sales or will have to reduce margins.
SP suggests they are struggling. The trend is now clearly down.
I'm getting word in that things aren't great for the industry.....
The grey channels into China are being shut down (which Comvita is heavily reliant on)
Total China sales are down 20-30%
Alot of inventory is sitting around at the moment (both in NZ and in CHN), with heavy discounting going on.
Dont want to beat the war-drum but I don't see the 1H loss as a 'blip'
Couldn't say, but two things I know....
The market tailwinds which have propelled the industry to high yoy growth in the CHN market (where 60% of CVT product ends up), have subdued.
The exec and the board have not adequately dealt with their sales/supply chain/distrubution risk by allowing so much in-direct trade into a market with one of the most volatile govt regulatory frameworks
Comvita web-site - 3 for price of 2 sale on UMF 5 & 10.
http://www.comvita.co.nz/offers