News

Investors in Jay Curtin’s Australian Honey Ventures may have lost all of the millions she raised from the public for her honey business.

Insolvency practitioners HLB Mann Judd Insolvency WA were officially appointed administrators to the company on the 1^st of December 2025.

A visit to the company’s online store at www.realgoodhoney.com on December 5^th also revealed it has stopped taking orders.

Indeed all the products at the online store are listed as sold out.

Honey infused with chilli (i.e. hot honey) was on the menu at Australian McDonalds stores in April and May, both as a dipping sauce and an ingredient in fried chicken products.

And the US hamburger chain went 'all out' to promote the new product with a media campaign using the slogan “embrace the drip.”

Alarm bells are ringing in Australia’s honey industry following discovery of a varroa mite in a beehive at Gumble in the central west of NSW.

Gumble is at least 100 kilometres west from the epi-centre and main locus of Australia’s varroa infestation in and around Newcastle and on the central coast of NSW.

So the spread of varroa mite to Gumble, after more than a year of enormous effort by authorities and beekeepers to contain and eradicate the infestation, is deeply concerning.

There has now been a total of 190 separate varroa infestations confirmed since the outbreak was first discovered outside the Port of Newcastle in April last year.

Crowd-sourced funding (CSF) is a relatively high-risk way of investing for investors.

But it also gives investors the opportunity to buy shares in businesses and areas which have not previously been readily accessible, like honey businesses.

Two good examples in recent years are Australian Honey Ventures and APIA Honey.

We’ve now got fantastic Jarrah honey available in store, and it is very special indeed, with unique natural qualities that make it very useful in a medical or health context.

Particularly when it is fresh, Jarrah honey often has very high levels of naturally occurring hydrogen peroxide.

Many Australians will know of this chemical as the main component of the bleach that surfers use to whiten their hair so as to get that much coveted, regular beach-goer look.

But in Jarrah honey these high levels of hydrogen peroxide are important because, like Manuka honey, it can kill certain microbes and bacteria.

Jarrah honey appears to be better than Manuka honey however, at treating fungal infections like tinea. It is also good at treating other skin infections and is even being touted as a treatment for complaints such as thrush.