Capilano Honey’s parent company, Hive & Wellness Australia, has sent a legal threat to beekeeper Simon Mulvany demanding he takes down numerous videos and articles from his social media only a day after media reported that Hive & Wellness Australia were trying to sell the company.
Capilano Honey have previously sued Simon Mulvany, and me for reporting Capilano were suing Mulvany, to silence us about reporting allegations of Capilano selling fake and poisonous honey.
The same allegations that Channel 7 reported in 2008 and 2011, yet they were never sued.
It raises many concerns and questions given Capilano Honey has a long history of selling and being accused of selling fake honey.
The biggest concern is if the company is sold to Chinese investors, as Nestle’s Egmont Honey was recently, will Capilano Honey and Hive & Wellness Australia’s other brands be diluted with fake honey given China is the world’s biggest producer and seller of fake honey?
The AFR published an article (8/7/25) titled, “Stokes-backed Capilano Honey fields interest for iconic brand; launches review” which starts off:
How sweet it is to be Rothschild & Co. Seven months after the investment bank sold Nestle’s Egmont Honey to Beijing-based Huatai International Private Equity Fund, its bankers have secured another honey deal.
Street Talk can reveal Hive & Wellness Australia, which owns Australia’s No.1 honey brand Capilano Honey, has brought in Rothschild to kick off a strategic review after fielding inbound expressions of interest for the $150 million revenue business. (Click here to read more – behind a paywall)
The AFR also report that billionaire Kerry Stokes is still one of the major shareholders via his company Australian Capital Equity.
It’s worth looking at a few articles that I have previously published as per below. (Other articles I have published on Capilano Honey you can read by clicking here)
In April 2020 I published an article titled, “Woolworths involved in a global food fraud conspiracy with Capilano Honey, Kerry Stokes, Kevin Rudd’s son-in-law, Albert Tse and others” which starts off:
Woolworths is again selling fake honey in a scam involving Capilano Honey Pty Ltd (now known as Hive and Wellness Australia Pty Ltd), their owners Kerry Stokes, Kevin Rudd’s son-in-law Albert Tse and others.
The global food fraud scam conspiracy entails importing fake honey and selling it in Australia, only at Woolworths at this point, via a new brand called Cloverdale Honey which is 90% imported fake honey. They are also exporting it overseas under what seems to be the false impression it is 100% Australian Honey.
I put questions to Woolworths, their CEO Brad Banducci and Hive and Wellness Australia Pty Ltd (formerly Capilano Honey Pty Ltd) but they failed to respond even though they knew I would be making the allegations that I am in this article.
Hive and Wellness Australia (Capilano Honey) and Woolworths have a long history of selling fake honey which is worth reviewing but let’s deal with their latest scam first, the new Cloverdale Honey. (Click here to read more)
I went to Woolworths today (12/7/25) and Cloverdale Honey is still 90% imported fake honey.
In December 2020 I published an article titled, “Capilano Honey owner Hive and Wellness are back up to their old tricks dumping imported honey in Australia putting struggling beekeepers out of business” which starts off:
Capilano Honey owner, Hive and Wellness Australia, are sneakily selling imported honey in Western Australia under the Sunny Flo brand, which is 90% imported honey, but they make no mention of Sunny Flo being one of their brands on their Hive and Wellness Australia website.
Add this to the Cloverdale Honey, which is also 90% imported honey and not mentioned on their website as one of their brands, which they are selling Australia wide at Woolworths then it becomes obvious why they are Australia’s biggest honey importer putting struggling Australian beekeepers out of business. (Click here to read more)
Channel 7 also broadcast stories in 2008 and 2011 accusing Capilano Honey of selling poisonous and polluted honey but Capilano never sued Seven and the stories were still on the Seven website until about the end of 2018 when they disappeared about the same time Capilano were exposed by other media for selling fake Allowrie honey. One of the Seven stories is below.
Lawsuit – Capilano Honey v Dowling
Just for the record, in March 2021 Capilano Honey won a judgement in their favour which I wrote about it an article titled, “Capilano Honey awarded $25,000 after spending $millions trying to silence journalist Shane Dowling for allegations they sold poisonous and toxic honey”. (Click here to read the article)
Neither Capilano Honey nor their former CEO Ben McKee had the judgement enforced, and I paid nothing.
I did have a big win during the course of the Capilano Honey v Dowling matter where I won a unanimous judgment in the NSW Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, to have suppression orders and non publication orders lifted that Capilano were using to hide their dodgy conduct. (Click here to read the judgment)
Below is a recent video that Simon Mulvany published which lawyers for Hive & Wellness Australia (Capilano) have demanded he take down. There is nothing wrong with the video as Simon Mulvany is just expressing his opinion and the other videos and articles they also want taken down aren’t any worse. You can watch the full video on Simon Mulvany’s Instagram page by clicking here.
Food fraud – China
If Hive & Wellness Australia and its brands such as Capilano Honey are sold to Chinese investors then the likelihood of all their brands being diluted with syrup would be extremely high given China are the biggest seller of fake honey in the world.
The SMH published an article (2018) tilted “Fake honey scandal widens to Australian-sourced brands” which says in part:
One in five samples of local honey sourced along the eastern seaboard of Australia, including boutique brands, has been found to be fake, deepening the global scandal over the impurity of honey.
The study, which tested five raw samples of honey and 95 local and global-branded honey, found 27 per cent were adulterated. But the big shock was Australian honey. Of the 38 honey samples sourced from supermarkets and markets, 18 per cent, or almost one in five, detected adulteration. The states implicated in the scandal include Victoria, Queensland, NSW and Tasmania.
and:
Food fraud is a $US40 billion a year industry and it is getting bigger as criminal gangs exploit weak regulation and outdated government tests. Honey is the third most adulterated food in the world, behind milk and olive oil.
The international fraudsters produce the fake honey and sell it to unsuspecting suppliers at a higher price, making a fortune along the way. Chinese vendors use website Alibaba to sell rice syrups and other syrups that claim that they can pass official honey tests. They sell for $US500 a metric tonne, which is vastly cheaper than honey. (Click here to read more)
Closing arguments
There is a high risk that if Hive & Wellness Australia (Capilano Honey) is sold to overseas investors then the amount of fake honey in Australia will increase.
It is almost certain any new owner will ramp up one of Capilano’s tricks of selling under the Capilano Honey brand in Asia as 100% Australian honey when it is only a small percentage of Australian honey.
Hive & Wellness Australia, especially under its previous listed name of Capilano Honey, has a long history of dodgy practices and it is certain to get worse under full foreign ownership.
Making a legal threat against Simon Mulvany while trying to sell the company internationally was not a good move. But it is straight out of Kerry Stokes’ playbook which he used during Capilano’s legal cases against Simon Mulvany and me.
Kerry Stokes’ legal nous has been found to be wanting in recent times with his involvement in the Ben Roberts-Smith matter and the Bruce Lehrmann matter via his control of Channel 7. The latest legal threat against Simon Mulvany is another classic “Streisand effect” mistake.
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Categories: Capilano Honey
Fake honey? Good god, is nothing sacred? The world seems full of conmerchants and thieves. Good exposure, KCA.
I am amazed people are not aware of not one, but the TWO Capilano scandals in recent years. I would never touch their product and I was thinking about it a few days ago when I saw them selling an ‘organic honey’ line in the supermarket and I thought, sure it is…unbelievable.
I’ve enjoyed researching aspects of this matter – this is what I came to find – I think this could all be cleared up with good science and proactive action by the regulatory authorities.
In my honest opinion and as I understand it, the recent article highlighting Capilano Honey’s ongoing legal threats against critics and the serious allegations of honey adulteration underscores a critical issue: how do we know what’s truly in our honey? Fortunately, there are advanced testing facilities globally that can accurately distinguish pure honey from syrups derived from both C3 and C4 plants – the very syrups that are known to have been used in fraudulent honey adulteration cases globally.
Organisations like Eurofins Scientific, the University of Guelph, CSIRO, the German Federal Institute, and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences employ cutting-edge methods including Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS), mass spectrometry, and DNA barcoding. These techniques not only differentiate between genuine honey and adulterants but can specifically detect syrups from C4 plants (such as cane sugar and corn syrup) and the more elusive C3 plant syrups (like rice and beet syrup) that evade simpler tests.
This scientific rigor is essential given the complex chemistry of honey and the sophisticated ways in which adulterants can mimic natural honey components. The use of combined isotope analysis, molecular profiling, and pollen DNA analysis represents the current gold standard in detecting honey fraud worldwide.
From a regulatory perspective, Australian law is clear on this matter. The Australian Consumer Law (ACL), enforced by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), prohibits misleading or deceptive conduct – including selling diluted honey as “pure” or “100% Australian honey” without proper disclosure. The ACCC has the authority to investigate false claims, pursue enforcement actions, issue fines, and seek court orders against companies that breach consumer law.
Further, the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, developed by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), mandates that all added ingredients – such as syrups or sweeteners – must be accurately listed on product labels. According to this code, “honey” is defined as the natural sweet substance produced by bees from nectar or honeydew, without additives. The addition of syrups means the product no longer qualifies as honey under this standard.
Enforcement of FSANZ’s standards happens through state and territory food regulators (such as the NSW Food Authority or VIC Department of Health), which conduct testing, monitor compliance, and manage food safety investigations at the local level. These bodies are vital in ensuring that honey sold on supermarket shelves meets labelling and purity standards.
In addition, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) plays a critical role in overseeing food safety and labelling for imported and exported honey. They inspect shipments, conduct targeted testing, and help prevent adulterated or falsely labelled products from entering or leaving the country.
To summarise:
• ACCC protects consumers from false advertising and misleading purity claims,
• FSANZ sets the national standards that define honey and regulate additives,
• DAFF ensures compliance at Australia’s borders,
• And state and territory regulators enforce these standards on the ground.
Failure to declare adulteration constitutes a serious breach of consumer trust and legal obligations – opening the door to penalties, recalls, and reputational damage. Consumers have every right to report suspected violations to the ACCC or their local food authority.
With Hive & Wellness Australia (Capilano Honey’s parent company) reportedly facing scrutiny and potential foreign ownership, it is more important than ever that our regulators act decisively, that science leads the way, and that transparency becomes the rule – not the exception.
Only through firm oversight, rigorous testing, and truthful labelling can we restore full confidence in Australian honey and protect the livelihoods of our country’s beekeepers.
The people in Australia have been frequently forewarned about the deceptions engaged in by Kerry Stokes and his honey based fraudulent labelled products.
You have to wonder…….The sudden appearence of the Veroa Mite in Australia a few years ago may have been planted deliberately to upset or destroy our honey industry.
Of course those Australian brands that import alot of fake honey already would not be too adversely effected. However, like many others here, I am not going to hold my breath waiting for the authorities to do anything about this!
No surprises here KCA I am hardly stoked by the weaselling that goes on with food products sold in Australia as 100% Australian or Organic and Pure. Honey is the tip of the iceberg. Then we have the ever increasing Halal certification label which is obtained by paying an Islamic cleric. Unfortunately there is generally insufficient Simon Mulvaney and KCA morals in business and our policy makers