Putake Honey

Renee and Dale De Luca, both with a wide range of work experience including army service, cookery, sales, marketing, logistics, IT and consulting, with degrees from Lincoln University and Victoria University respectively, relocated to Marlborough and purchased 150 bee hives from a business in Nelson.  That has grown to 1000 hives in Marlborough and expansion is well underway into the West Coast of the South Island.  Honey production has grown from 5 tonnes to 30 tonnes a year, with the expectation of more than 100 tonnes next season (July to June).  Putake Honey has won awards and Renee the ‘Love of the Land’ award in the 2014 Rural Women Award series.

In 2014, New Zealand had over 500,000 registered hives and that total grew by 10% in a year.  There were just under 5000 registered bee keepers and total honey production was around 17,000 tonnes.  Each hive produced an average of 35kgs of honey. The value of honey exports was $170m.  The average export price has doubled in the past decade from $10/kg to $20/kg because of the unique manuka factor (UMF) specialisation and more packaged sales, rather than bulk.  Export earnings have doubled, and then doubled again because of increased production.  The industry is at least four times larger now than it was a decade ago. (Source: Betta Bees Research newsletter, 11/2014).

Putake is Maori for cause, origin or source.  The Marlborough honey business has now expanded to 750 hives on 10-12 properties, mainly sheep and beef farms with native bush and good wildflower and clover feed source.  An additional 250 hives are owned in partnership with Garlico Marlborough as Marlborough Pollination.  Putake also expanded into the West Coast in 2014, replicating what has been developed in the Marlborough business to provide a good base with local community ties.  Strong hives can be split in two during spring and autumn, helping growth as new territories are required to grow the bee-keeping business.

The De Lucas are also shareholders to a queen breeding programme called Betta Bees Research run from Otago.  Betta Bees Research Limited runs New Zealand’s leading Italian honeybee livestock improvement programme and operates a science based, closed population breeding programme using traditional and molecular selection techniques.  Being part of a closed population breeding programme means breeder queens have selected traits i.e. resistance to varroa and traits that aren’t desired are effectively bred out.

All aspects of hive management are extremely important in Putake’s business, with the ultimate goal being to have the healthiest hives in NZ. Regular inspections and disease control using chemical strips in both spring and autumn help to combat varroa which ensures a healthy bee population and increases hive production.

In Marlborough, Putake employs two bee keepers and a part time administration person, along with Renee and Dale who are both hands-on proprietors – albeit Dale still commutes to Wellington during the week where he is an IT consultant.  They expect to be employing an additional three people with the West Coast when expansion plans are fulfilled, with Dale coming into the business in a full time capacity later in the year in time for the 2015/2016 season.  Seasonal help is also required during the height of the season, in both bee keeping and in the honey house helping run the extraction line.

Honey production has increased considerably over the three seasons that Putake has been operational, from 5 tonnes to 10 tonnes, and an expected 30 tonnes this season, which ends on June 30.

Putake tries to sell honey that captures what the bees have collected from different feed sources – manuka, wildflower, matagouri, clover and kamahi. Putake’s honey is RAW, therefore is not heated above hive temp (around 36 degrees) and has all the ingredients like pollen and propolis that make honey great.  Putake does not blend these honeys and markets whatever the season produces – the “vintage”.  For example matagouri flowers are only available every three or four years and kamahi trees (Weinmannia racemosa) are found mainly on the West Coast.

Each vintage can be quite different in the output of single-source honeys.  This year about 15% of Putake’s output will be sold in jars with honey source labelling through high-end retailers nationwide, and the other 85% sold in drums to wholesalers for export consumption.  While the Putake Honey branding was important to establish the products and the company, production for wholesalers is necessary to handle the growing volumes.  Scale was identified early on as a barrier to export retail growth, and much of the past three years has been spent building the production capability to enable Putake to start developing retail export markets in 2016/2017.

After three years of using someone else’s processing facilities, Putake this year installed its own extraction machinery, imported from Finland. When loaded with 52 frames on the wheel, the 7.5m long fully-automated machine takes over.  The processing shed is operational for around 43 days per season, with Putake’s Marlborough based business taking around 25 of these days and the balance used to extract other bee keepers’ honeys from around the region.  All extracted honey goes initially into drums and each drum is tested for floral content, moisture, pollen counts and tutin. Results can take up to 14 days in the height of the season.  After this time the retail honey can be bottled and the balance sold to bulk wholesalers within NZ or exported.

In partnership with Garlico, Marlborough Pollination put out 250 hives for fruit tree and seed crop pollination services from September to mid-January.  The 2014/2015 was the first season for this business as Garlico has a requirement for pollination of their own onion seed crops.  Having a business solely focused on pollination is new for Marlborough and Renee says that pollination is “quite involved”.  Hives have to be strong and bee numbers need to be at their peak to enable good pollination of crops.  This year Marlborough Pollination will run information seminars around pollination with expert speakers on hand and are focused on providing a really great service throughout the region.