Tasmania’s Australian Honey Products Pty Ltd is revelling in more sweet success, having been named the 2016 Agribusiness Exporter Award winner at the 54th Australian Export Awards in Brisbane.
The accolade is another feather in the cap for owner Lindsay Bourke, of Launceston, who was named the producer of the 2015 ‘World’s Best Honey’.
The Australian Export Awards Agribusiness Award recognises outstanding international success in the field of agricultural products services or technology, including processed foods and beverages and the forestry fisheries and fibres industry.
Australian Honey Products beat out finalists from each state and territory from fields such as beef production and processing, vegetable production and innovation, coconut industries, allergen sensitive food production, and another honey producer from Western Australia.
Mr Bourke started as a one-man-operation with 200 hives in 1966. The business has grown to be a globally-recognised producer of honey and honey based products, including honey beverages, ales, meads and honey nectar concentrates.
The business boasts more than 3600 hives and employs up to 30 staff during the peak season. It produces 200 tonnes of honey a year, and have built a new state-of-the-art processing facility in Sheffield which will be used for the first time this processing season.
The company exports 70 per cent of its award winning honey products to Asia, the UK, Europe and the Middle East, with its biggest markets including China, Hong Kong, Canada, Oman, Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
It also provides an expert pollination service for the Tasmanian agriculture sector as well as exporting live bees to Canada, and now offers the accredited Certificate III beekeeping training program to nurture our next generation of apiarists right here in Tasmania.
Tasmanian Business Reporter 
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