Honey factory to bring 20 new jobs | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

Steens Honey are building a $500,000 factory in Masterton that will service about 7000 Wairarapa hives and employ up to 20 people.

Julie Cox, business development manager for Steens Honey, said the Te Puke-based business would be shifting their extraction and storage plant to Wairarapa this year and once capacity is reached would be annually producing up to 250 tonnes of mankua honey for Comvita, Honey New Zealand and international outlets.

The company plan to have a factory built by September in Manaia Road, she said, and will shift extraction and production equipment from Te Puke for assembling and trials when construction is complete.

The factory will begin extraction early next year, she said.

Ms Cox said there are now eight beekeepers already working in Wairarapa for the company ?V including an apprentice and operations manager ?V and six immigrant beekeepers are also to be employed after a recruitment drive for Wairarapa keepers was "less fruitful than hoped".

Another six positions would also be available by the time production starts, she said.

"Construction will happen fairly quickly from now on, and the building will be sizeable. The investment we're making is not small and is quite a sign of our confidence in the region for the production of mankua honey."

She said there are also several Wairarapa farmers who have placed Steens' hives on their properties "as a good additional return, and use of their marginal land".

Ms Cox said there would be seven trucks working out of the Masterton plant and "to spread our risk" there would also be hives located out of the region that will be processed in the town.

The Masterton operation is just over twice the size of the present Te Puke facility, she said, and although administration will remain there had been resistance to the shift from the Bay of Plenty as the Steens' bees were also used to pollinate kiwifruit and avocado crops in the region.

"But we have worked with other beekeepers in the area about this issue so the slack would be taken up after we're gone."

Ms Cox said the varroa mite is no greater danger in Wairarapa than anywhere else in the country and that the company had the disease in check throughout their hives.

The hunt is on-going for other suitable locations for hives in the region that are close to adequate manuka stands, she said, as is the search for Wairarapa beekeepers to tend the hives.

???nInterested beekeepers may contact Steens Honey operations manager Peter Ferris at 06 370 2900.