Mānuka honey fetches $2700 a jar
A rare batch of mānuka honey is raking in almost $3000 a jar at London’s most famous department stores, making it one of the most expensive foods on the planet.
The True Honey Company’s Rare Harvest mānuka honey hit the shelves at Harrods last week with a 230 gram jar priced at £1390 or NZ$2700.
Despite the hefty price tag, orders are flowing in and the limited supply of 1000 jars isn’t expected to last long.
‘‘One customer pre-ordered 10 jars the week before it went on sale at Harrods and someone else got six jars from Selfridges,’’ True Honey Co chief executive Jim McMillan said.
The honey has the highest unique mānuka factor (UMF) ever produced at 31+, more than six times the UMF of some mānuka honeys commonly sold in supermarkets.
UMF denotes the level of purity of the active properties of the mānuka honey.
Rare Harvest honey is made in Ahipara, Northland, although its exact source is being kept under wraps.
McMillan said the company went to a lot of effort to place its hives in the centre of some of the most pure mānuka stands in very remote parts of the country.
‘‘That means the volume of other nectar contamination in the honey is almost non-existent, it’s incredibly pure.’’
Although McMillan had sampled the honey and had a jar at home, it wasn’t a regular feature at his breakfast table.
‘‘I can’t say that I’ve been spreading it on my toast in the morning. I think some of the people purchasing the honey possibly are doing that but a number of them are probably keeping it as a collectors item or saving it for a special occasion,’’ he said.
With a kilogram of Rare Harvest honey costing more than $11,700, even McMillan found it difficult to comprehend how much people were prepared to pay for it. ‘‘I guess in reality there is quite a high number of people with relatively high levels of disposable income that have a strong desire to buy the very best of what they love and enjoy,’’ he said.
While not quite worth its weight in gold – a kilo of that costs around $76,000 – when it comes to single-ingredient foods, the honey is in expensive company.
Meat connoisseurs fork out a comparatively modest $1000 a kilo for wagyu beef in Japan, while saffron sells for about $10 a gram or $10,000 a kilogram.
However, those prices pale in comparison to the world’s most expensive food, black caviar from the Iranian beluga, with a kilogram costing upwards of $40,500.