TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Changhua County Magistrate Wang Hui-mei (王惠美) led a delegation to New Zealand on Monday to learn how the country develops globally competitive farm brands.

According to the Changhua County Government, the county has been actively promoting its apiculture industry in recent years. It holds an annual honey appraisal to raise product quality and brand image while looking for new ideas to boost marketing.

The group first visited New Zealand’s BeeNZ honey plant, where staff showed them every step of production, from moisture checks to filtering and bottling. They also learned how New Zealand’s UMF system ranks honey by compounds like MGO (Methylglyoxal), making it easy for buyers to see quality.

The group then visited a kiwifruit orchard to see how New Zealand growers keep their products competitive worldwide. Orchard managers explained how unified standards, strict crop controls, and consistent packaging help New Zealand maintain a strong national brand that shoppers easily recognize.

Changhua County’s magistrate said the county wants to raise its own farm goods value through these lessons. Wang said the county will work on clearer labels, stronger quality checks, and coordinated marketing so Changhua products can enter more overseas markets.

New Zealand’s UMF is an international grading system used to rate the quality of manuka honey. It checks several key compounds to show how pure the honey is and how strong its active properties are.

Manuka honey comes from bees that collect nectar from the manuka plant, which grows mainly in New Zealand. Most everyday honey comes from mixed flower sources, while manuka honey has unique compounds like MGO that give it stronger activity and a higher market value.

MGO is one of the main compounds measured in the UMF test. Higher MGO levels mean the honey has stronger antibacterial strength and is considered higher grade.