1985: Free Market Honey
May 15, 2019
By AHNZ
I don’t know when The State first took over honey in New Zealand. Never tried to find that out. If I had to guess I’d say the Liberals were to blame back in the 1890s. It’s the sort of dirty job Jock McKenzie would do.
Well, it happened to honey just as most any other product you can name that people like to buy and sell. When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.¹ Every man has his price and the Kiwi’s, being lower than most, his corruption is not highly visible.²
We do know that the Communist Commissariat for Honey was called The New Zealand Honey Marketing Authority (HMA) and that it was established 1955 (see previous post.) Similar to Labour 6.0’s latest scheme The National New Energy Development Centre it was National 1.0’s legislative effort to capture a market for their tribe. That’s all politics is, by the way. Back and forth battle for control over the use of force to exploit people. Consider taking up Anarchism, you’re better off.
“This organization had been blessed with cheap government money and an income from a levy applied on all honey packers in the country”- airborne.co.nz
Rogernomics Topples Honey Cartel
At one time Roger Douglas and Labour 4.0 seemed to me genuine free market reformers. They just had some strange quirks that could be…overlooked? After all, one of the first things they did was to disband the HMA Monopoly Cartel in about 1985³ ushering in a new era of freedom for Kiwi consumers and producers. The Forth Labour Government were really big on shrinking The State and breaking up protectionist rackets with a seemingly virtuous zeal. We libertarians thought they were doing it for us, for liberty! Now I accept Labour 4.0 were instituting radical reforms to cut the legs out of their political opponents, to unplug their enemies from the power supply with a view to plugging themselves into it.
And then….a honey miracle! It was something different, something nobody counted on. All these years New Zealand manuka honey had been invisible. The Government Commissariat simply poured all honey into communal vats according to rough colours. There was no opportunity, no freedom, to differentiate something special like manuka honey. It’s as if all our goat and sheep were processed the same way, nobody bothering to tell their fibre or meat apart. Or all our wine and spirits sloshed into one big mix, nobody having any incentive within a state-controlled market to innovate and discover. The free market reforms gave us free market honey and a new unique Kiwi speciality product!
The Future
Regulatory capture has eluded New Zealand honey since 1985. Once Sir Roger set the bee free nobody has been able to get a crapitalist saddle back on again.
Labour 6.0 is trying very hard though, as previously posted. Karin Kos (Apiculture New Zealand, CEO) is part of the Honey Mafia alliance trying hard to get the government to nationalise honey they way it used to back in the bad old cartel days. Currently there is a turf war on. Kos needs to give Damien O’Connor (Minister of “Honey Safety”) more to work with than these recent efforts….
2018:Redefinition: O’Connor, made the Al Capone sudden move to alchemically re-define manuka honey beyond the reach of small producers. To crowd them out by legislative standards rather than out-compete them fair and square. After some sly footwork, it was done.
2018: Honey heists, Kos cries! Regulate us for our own good!
“…cost of crime for the honey industry, but Apiculture New Zealand [ApiNZ] chief executive Karin Kos estimates it to be in the millions.”
“Howes has a history of honey crime…Howes also has a conviction for imitating an apiarist.”- Sticky bandits: High honey values and demand leads to criminal underbelly; Herald
In my opinion this story, perhaps even some of the so-called heists, are inside jobs. The end goal is to give Labour 6.0 and the Honey Godfathers an excuse to bring back the old Honey Lordships
2019: Raise economic barriers to entry over the heads of anyone who isn’t best friends with ApiNZ and Labour 6.0…
“President of NZ Beekeeping and Arataki Honey owner Russell Berry says small businesses will not be able to afford the proposed honey levy.”
“ApiNZ chief executive Karin Kos said the money would be invested into areas such as the health of the bee population, biosecurity, education and best beekeeping practice, sustainability, and market access issues.”- Beekeepers smarting over proposed ‘tax on honey’; Stuff
This failed dismally, by the way. (Ref. ApiNZ disappointed by beekeepers’ votes on levy, Rural News Group, March 2019)
2019: Talk the market down! Dishearten the little guy who can’t afford O’Connor’s “safety testing” stamps. They were even willing to hurt their share price to do it…
““We can expect to see some rationalisation over the next year as beekeepers consider their options in this tough market,” says Ms Kos”- ‘Falling prices and sluggish sales’: Challenging times for New Zealand beekeepers; Rural Exchange, Newshub (complete with audio performance from ApiNZ)
“Everyone’s paying [industry-specific protectionist taxes,] everyone has to pay”- Newshub’s closing soundbyte; ibid
This sort of mainstream media propaganda to bust morale is beyond what anyone but these mega companies to afford. If Newshub’s Rural Exchange were journalism that wouldn’t matter but they’re not so we only hear one side of the story. A paid advertisement? New Zealand inches ever closer to bringing back the Honey Mafia.
We may expect more developments toward and around the Apiculture New Zealand conference at the end of June 2019. I fear they are feeling very smug about their monopolistic and kleptocratic future plans.
—
image ref. HONEY EXHIBIT FROM THE STATE DEMONSTRATION APIARY; Auckland Weekly News; Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections
image ref. Stamp duty stamp, aka slave tattoo; nzrevenues.co.nz
image ref. Douglous and friends; Osborne, Geoff Auckland Sun; Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections
image ref. Lepto and bee; Stuff
image ref. Riding a bee; Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)
image ref. Kos I said so; apinz.org.nz
1 PJ O’Rourke
2 G McLauchlan
3 Although, National 3.0 had already begun; Honey Marketing Authority (Dissolution) Regulations 1983; Legislation.gov
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