NEW ZEALAND HONEY

Hokitika Guardian, 8 February 1923, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND HONEY

BLENDING PROCESS -AT BENBOW

A COMPLIMENT FROM DENMARK

LONDON, December 20. This morning I picked my way through the narrow streets of Southwark, near the river, bent on a commercial quest. But before T reached my destination I was made aware that I was passing through a locality immortalised by Dickens: “Bern Caidens.” “Park Street,” “Moss -Alley “Skin Yard” had a familiar sound about them, and though many of the groat warehouses are apparently new. there remain rows of mean houses which belong to a forgotten past. Then to, we came to a building which bore the name of a certain fur merchant. Once it was a famous mission hall, and Spurgeon, when he came to London as a hoy, preached his first sermon there.

In si certain modern ferro-eoncreto warehouse l>y Benbow wharf in the midst of this historic ground, we came to the object of our quest—cases of Xew Zealand honey piled up to the ceiling on three or four floors. Much of it was in hulk, as it has arrived during the past season—two GOlb tins in each case. But much of it had been blended and packed, and was ready to go out to the public. It is in this warehouse, then, that all the honey from the Dominion is first concentrated. Besides the export blender and bis office staff of two. there are eleven girls and six boys employed to deal with the produce. On the roof of tin* building is a shed containing the bins. Rxperimonts are first made with the samples for eolonr, texture, and taste, and then some sixty seleeted and opened tins are placed in the hi 11s. A slight heat is applied.

and the sluggish stream of honey pours out and mixes and so passes through a pipe to the tanks on the lloor below Such arc the properties of honey that all impiiritis remain at the top of the tanks. Glass jars are washed and labelled on the premises, boxes are made up from sections already cut and purchased from Norway or Sweden, and a small party of girls sit at the tank taps, filling the jars, adjusting the stoppers, wrapping tin- jars in coloured paper and parking them in their cases. Seventy eases each containing forty-eight one 111. jars can be filled from one tank in a day. Sill PM ENTS TO DENMARK. It may lie asked: A V lint success ha.s there been with New ’Zealand homw in England ? First, it must he remembered that England considers marmalade the proper tiling to onl for breakfast. Honey has never hei-ome a habit. On the Continent, however, ii K a hieakfa-t habit, and Scandinavia -end*! a good deal of honey to thi‘ count!*- In rpite of tier Me-sts V I Mills and Co.. I lie agents f- c the N. w Zealand produce, hare bo-ai ah!<- to sell a proportion of th - output to Scandinavia, and this in spite of the fact that Danish honey ranks seciinJ only to British on the market. This surely is. a compliment to New nlimd Ttnnorinl bee honey. Owing to the monopoly now- set up by the Honev producers’ A.s-o-iaticn the agents here are able to obtain -JO a cwt. more fur the Nev,- Zealand article than for Californian honey of equal grade. This difference in price does not by any means represent the difference in quality, so that it is evident that the co-operative system -o far has beet: a success. It will doid less lie a si ill greater success, for no other honev is sold in England under its own name. Before the war milv eighty toils of New Z aland honev re disposed of per year in Great BiMin. Now some 500 foils are being disposed of. Not all of this is being sold packed anti labelled as Tmnerial Bee LToney I'or it must lie nndersti od that “om" of the produce is not up t-i a standard that can he put on the market

with credit to the country of origin. This is disposed of in hulk merely as honey, and its place n f origin is mil stressed. Til any ease, it is pr iluilily blended with other honey, and its identity lost. THE BEST ADVERTISEMENT. In the meantime however, the blended and labelled article is finding a place on the market as from New Zealand. lbs colour, taste and texture is consistent, and no one needs over he disappointed with what he buys. The high price probably prevents it from being sold very freely, but so far the quantity available has not warranted the price being brought lower than Is Gd per lh iar retail. It is advertising itself in the very best wny— by quality: and if greater quantities are forthcoming the gradually growing demand mav warrant the. price being kept np. Tn any case, a larger quantity could be disposed of in bulk and the name the honey has acquired would ensure a guild price as compared with other imported honey. ■Selling in bulk will continue to be a difficult matter until some arrangement lias been made with the New Zealand Government graders. Doubtless the graders are right, but buyers in England lay stress on colour rather than on taste and texture and it may lie taken for granted that buyers here will have their way and Now Zealand will not impose its methods on the British market.