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The Australian manuka honey industry has gathered over 5,000 pages of information to fight back in court against New Zealand’s recent attempts to trademark the name ‘manuka’ for its honey, after failed attempts to reach a truce.
A group working to secure the term manuka for New Zealand is running out of money.
The manuka honey industry was worth to $436 million in exports last year, the Manuka Charitable Trust says.
Photo: 123rf
In 2019, the government allocated nearly $6 million for a campaign to stop Australian beekeepers marketing their products as manuka honey.
The Manuka Charitable Trust is leading the legal fight, working to trademark the term manuka through the Intellectual Property Office.
Trust spokesman Victor Goldsmith said part of the money from The Provincial Growth Fund was a $1.7m loan to cover legal proceedings.
He said challenges from Australia and UK were pushing up costs and the loan was quickly running out.