Natural health products company Comvita is up in arms over media reports on a recent High Court ruling, claiming they are potentially misleading and damaging.

On June 4 High Court Justice Rhys Harrison issued a judgment on a long-running commercial dispute between Comvita and WaikatoLink, the commercialisation arm of Waikato University.

The dispute was over an intellectual property agreement regarding the active compound in Manuka honey that gives it its special non-peroxide antibacterial properties.

Comvita is forecasting a big lift in full year net profit after tax, with the manuka honey producer confirming today that it expects a bottom line result of $4.9 million.

That unaudited net profit forecast for the year ended March is up 512.5% on the previous year, when it recorded a net profit after tax of $0.77 million.

The New Zealand scientist who discovered manuka honey’s unique health properties has put his name to a new testing standard that will ensure consumers are getting what they paid for.

Professor Peter Molan MBE, from the University of Waikato’s Honey Research Unit, said the surging global demand for New Zealand manuka honey is creating a major ethical concern in the way it is being marketed to consumers.

A bee health product with cancer-fighting properties could become an even bigger export earner than Manuka honey, according to the professor who uncovered its benefits.

Melbourne-based professor Hiroshi Maruta led international research that found Bio 30 bee propolis from New Zealand suppresses neurofibromatosis, a condition that affects the skin and nervous system of one in 3000 people.

Dr Maruta is a visiting professor at Hamburg University Hospital, the University of Maryland in Baltimore, and La Trobe University in Melbourne.

There is still money in honey, with manuka honey producer Comvita reporting a $1.56 million profit for the past year, although the company is declining to declare a dividend.

The surplus was built on a 26.4% increase in total revenue for the year, with the medicinal honey company reporting $71.44 million in sales.

The company did record a fall in sales in its New Zealand and the UK markets, but this was offset by higher growth in its Asian and Australian business.

The war of words between two rival brands of manuka honey testing is set to continue after a new study backed the effectiveness of the newer testing method.

The Active Manuka Honey Association (AMHA) and Manuka Health New Zealand (MHNZ) have been embroiled in a long-running stoush over their different methods of testing for the antibacterial properties manuka honey is famous for.

AMHA licenses the use of the UMF test, which rates manuka honey’s bacteria-killing activity in comparison to the laboratory disinfectant phenol.