The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand has delayed its hearing on the use of the term ‘manuka honey’, giving Australia’s manuka honey industry more time to urge the federal government to intervene on the issue.
At the end of March, Australian Manuka Honey Association (AMHA) chairman Paul Callander said Australia’s local manuka honey industry says it has been “all but abandoned by the Australian government” in the lead up to the court hearing, which was scheduled for 13 April.
Callender said the delay had come as a surprise to the organisation, we hoped it would “provide us the opportunity to have productive talks with our government around securing the industry’s future”.
“There is still time for our political leaders to step in to negotiate a positive outcome that would see both the New Zealand and Australian industries thrive,” he said.
"Prefixing the name Manuka with country of origin, and letting the Maori version be, is all we are asking for. We have every right to be able to use the term Manuka as we spell it and have complete respect for the word Mānuka or Maanuka as New Zealand uses it.”
The AMHA said the term manuka has been used in Australia since the 1800s and was first used in Tasmania for “a product derived from a Tasmanian native plant”.
A later date for the hearing is yet to be announced.
