Who doesn’t love honey?
It’s a delicious, healthier alternative to regular, store-bought sweets, and you can use it for skincare too. And while regular honey is great on its own, Manuka Honey — a unique New Zealand honey available in South Africa — is on a whole new level. With its numerous health benefits and antibacterial properties, Manuka honey is a product you (hopefully) won’t regret trying!
Click Here to Buy Manuka Honey in SA (2024)
What Is Manuka Honey?
Manuka honey is a type of honey native to New Zealand, where bees pollinate manuka bushes. These bushes don’t grow just anywhere — they are usually found in remote, untouched areas. Manuka blooms for only 2–6 weeks a year, which leaves a small window of opportunity to collect the honey.
Manuka honey is easily recognizable, mostly due to its thick consistency and dark color. Much like other honey types, it has a sweet and strong flavour. You might feel slight bitterness or an earthy aroma. Some say manuka tastes like toffee or eucalytpus.
Is Manuka Honey Available in South Africa?
Yes. Manuka honey is available in South Africa – but be warned: stocks are sometimes limited (and very expensive).
We recommend purchasing it online from Faithful to Nature. The API manuka brand was previously sold at Dischem, but we have not seen it in-stock for some time now. Neither Woolworths nor Clicks sell manuka honey either.
Faithful to Nature is where we have purchased all our own Manuka honey from. If the actual honey is not stock, you may also be interested in their manuka teas and manuka skin care products.
Available Brands
As of November 2022, we are aware of only the following manuka honey brands sold in South Africa:
- Truefood
- Tahi
- Manuka Masters
- MANUKA
What is the Price of Manuka Honey in South Africa?
As of September 2022, the average Manuka Honey price in South Africa is R766 per 250g. Expect the pricing to vary based on availability, brand, UMF/MGO rating, and whether you’re purchasing online or in-store.
(The average costing is based on our own calculations of several retail brands.)
Why Is Manuka Honey So Expensive?
If you compare the price of Manuka honey in South Africa to that of a regular, local one, you’ll notice a striking difference. Manuka honey is expensive — there are no two ways about it. But when you consider it’s numerous healing properties and health benefits, it becomes clear that this honey is like no other. And of course, the price reflects that.
In addition, Manuka bush is native only to New Zealand, where it blooms for 2-6 weeks a year. To make a single jar of honey, bees must take 22,700 trips to the bushes and gather the nectar. All of this traveling has to take place in as little as 14 days! As if that’s not enough, some Manuka flowers don’t have high enough concentrations of certain key components for making Manuka honey.
When you consider how much work it is to make even a single jar, it’s almost surprising that Manuka honey isn’t more expensive! Add to this the cost of SARS, importation, tax, etc., and the price starts to make more sense.
Manuka Honey is imported. According to SA Food product regulations every food related products, including Honey must be irradiated. Thus, Destroying the health Benefits. So Clients are paying for sugar which is dangerous, especially in the case of Diabetics. Have none of you thought this through??
Thank you for your comment and visit. Although it is correct that commercially imported honey into South Africa, including manuka honey, is indeed irradiated, we are not aware of any nutritional indication or anecdotal reports of the irradiation process reducing raw honey to the category of sugar, and consequently such is now harmful for diabetics. We have researched and written previously on the harms of irradiation (https://rawhoneylove.co.za/about-honey/irradiated-honey-vs-raw-honey/) and nutritional harms are mainly seen in Vitamin E reduction. Some health benefits are indeed destroyed by irradiation, but not in the category where the honey is reduced to the level of a harmful and/or futile substance. And regarding the dangerous sugar you mention, no sugar is added to honey during the irradiation process. We believe current research and naturopaths support the stance we mention here and is of course liable to change. If you have more information or another angle to share, we would love to hear from you – or any other visitor who would like to contribute to this discussion. Hope to hear from you. Thank you. Sincerely, Webmaster (rawhoneylove.co.za).