Older beekeepers in NZ will tell you that until the late 1990s/early 00s, it wasn't even considered commercially viable and was only suitable as winter feed for bees, because all anybody wanted to buy was clover. There was not much space in the market for darker honeys from the NZ bush and scragglier hill country. This fit perfectly with the mindset of thousands of NZ farmers, who were diligently clearing the mānuka off their land because it was "scrub" that could be replaced with grass. Fast-forward to the year 2020 C.E. and Comvita is doing mānuka plantations...