Source:
https://scmp.com/presented/business/topics/australia-country-report/article/1846329/blue-hills-honey-strengthen
Business

Blue Hills Honey to strengthen market presence around region

Discovery Reports

Updated: 5:08pm, 23 Mar, 2016

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Robbie Charles, apiary manager and owner, at work

Home to the world's most primitive and ancient wilderness, Australia's island state of Tasmania boasts the world's cleanest air and water. Located in a remote part of Tasmania, Blue Hills Honey is a family-owned beekeeping business owned and operated by second-generation apiarist Robbie Charles and his wife Nicola. 

Robbie's father, Reuben Charles, founded the business in 1955. Since then, the Charles family has been gathering pure wild honey from the pristine rainforests, coastal beaches and heathlands known as the Tarkine wilderness.

"Blue Hills Honey combines raw honey and tradition with state-of-the-art facilities and best management practices," says Nicola Charles, business manager and CEO. "Tasmania's unspoiled environment and our extensive beekeeping experience result in healthy, happy bees that produce perfect honey. Importantly, our process of cold extraction ensures that our honey retains all of the flavours and aromas of pure, wild honey."

Blue Hills Honey produces many different varieties of honey, including the world-famous Leatherwood and Manuka varieties.

Often referred to as the "King of Honey" and described by Robbie Charles as "tasting like the rainforest", the company's Leatherwood honey is harvested from the wild rainforests of Tasmania - the only place in the world where the rare leatherwood tree Eucryphia lucida grows. Manuka honey, on the other hand, is produced from the bush Leptospermum scoparium, found in remote parts of Tasmania and New Zealand and long reputed for its antibacterial properties. 

"In 2006, the naturally occurring compound methylglyoxal was identified as the dominant antibacterial constituent of Manuka honey," Nicola Charles says. "We take great care to ensure its purity and that the methylglyoxal content is measured and labelled on each jar." 

To celebrate its 60th anniversary, Blue Hills Honey will be launching its Tomella range, featuring the company's best batches of Blackberry, Leatherwood, Manuka and Meadow varieties of honey personally selected by Robbie Charles. 

Blue Hills Honey products can be found on the mainland and in Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany, France and Russia. The company is working hard to expand its presence in the Asian market by working with trusted partners who share the same values.