Trade & Markets

Importing Mānuka Honey into the UAE: A Distributor's Guide

By the Nuka Team • 21 Jun 2026 • 11 min read

The United Arab Emirates is the Gulf's premium-food gateway — a high-income, gifting-driven market with one of the world's most efficient re-export infrastructures behind it. And as of 28 August 2025, New Zealand exporters have a tariff advantage getting in: the NZ–UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) is in force.[1]

This guide walks an importer or distributor through exactly what it takes to bring genuine New Zealand Mānuka honey into the UAE — the trade agreement, the tariff and tax position, halal, the Dubai food-registration process, labelling rules, and the New Zealand-side certification that proves your honey is the real thing.

Every regulatory and numeric claim below is sourced to a primary or near-primary reference, linked at the end. Where a figure is a market-intelligence estimate rather than official data, we say so.

The headline: NZ–UAE CEPA is already in force

New Zealand and the UAE signed their bilateral CEPA on 14 January 2025, and it entered into force on 28 August 2025.[1] [2] Unlike the NZ–India FTA — which is signed but not yet operative — the UAE agreement is live today.

Under the CEPA, 98.5% of New Zealand's goods exports enter the UAE duty-free immediately, rising to 99% within three years. The New Zealand government estimates the deal saves NZ exporters around NZ$42 million per year in duties.[2] The agreement is described by MFAT as covering New Zealand's major agricultural exports — dairy, red meat, and horticulture all go to zero duty from day one.[1]

An important caveat on honey specifically: the public CEPA summaries don't publish a line-by-line tariff schedule, so the exact staging for honey (HS code 0409) should be confirmed against the official MFAT Tariff Finder for the specific tariff line and shipment. Given that the standard GCC duty on honey is only 5% (below) and that the CEPA takes the overwhelming majority of NZ goods to zero, the practical landed-cost picture for NZ Mānuka is strongly favourable — but verify the exact rate before quoting it to a customer.

The tariff and tax position

Import duty

The UAE applies the GCC Common External Tariff, which sets a standard duty of 5% on the CIF (Cost, Insurance, Freight) value of natural honey under HS heading 0409.[3] There is no general food-staple exemption that zero-rates honey outside of a trade agreement — the route to a reduced or zero rate is the NZ–UAE CEPA, subject to meeting the agreement's rules of origin (i.e. the honey genuinely being of New Zealand origin).

VAT

The UAE levies a standard VAT of 5%, in place since 1 January 2018.[4] Honey is not on the UAE's zero-rated basic-food list (which covers a narrow set of staples), so packaged Mānuka is taxed at the standard 5% rate. On imports, VAT is typically handled through the reverse-charge mechanism — the UAE-registered importer accounts for the VAT in their own return rather than the overseas supplier charging it.[4]

Practical takeaway: model your landed cost as CIF + duty (0–5% depending on CEPA treatment) + 5% VAT (recoverable by a VAT-registered importer) + clearance and logistics. For premium Mānuka, duty and VAT are a small fraction of the retail price — the economics are driven far more by grade, brand, and channel than by border costs.

Does Mānuka honey need halal certification?

Short answer: not as a legal requirement. Under UAE rules, mandatory halal certification targets meat, poultry, and animal-derived products and supplements — categories where slaughter or animal-origin ingredients are involved.[5] Honey does not fall within those mandatory categories.

That said, halal certification is a commercial advantage, not a burden, in a majority-Muslim market. It removes any question at the shelf and in procurement, and many GCC buyers expect it on imported food regardless of the strict legal position. If you choose to certify, use a certification body recognised by the UAE's Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MOIAT), which maintains the official register of accepted halal bodies.[5]

Bottom line: you can legally import and sell genuine honey without halal certification, but obtaining it from a MOIAT-recognised body is a low-cost way to widen retail and institutional acceptance.

Registering your product to import: the UAE process

Food products must be registered before they can be cleared and sold. Which authority you deal with depends on the emirate of entry:

  • Dubai — Dubai Municipality's FIRS (Food Import and Re-export System), run by the Food Safety Department, handles food and beverage registration and clearance.[6]
  • Federal — MOCCAE (Ministry of Climate Change and Environment) issues import permits for food and agricultural consignments, and operates the national food registration system (ZAD).[7]
  • Abu Dhabi — ADAFSA (Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority), via the ATLP trade platform.

For a honey product, expect to provide:[6]

  1. A valid UAE trade licence covering food/honey trading activity (held by your local importer)
  2. Product labels in both Arabic and English
  3. An ingredients list and a Certificate of Analysis / lab test from an accredited facility
  4. Manufacturer GMP / food-safety (GHP/FSMS) evidence
  5. A declaration that no additives, sweeteners, or chemical treatments have been added
  6. A health certificate from New Zealand's competent authority (MPI) confirming the product is fit for human consumption

As a rough planning guide, full first-time clearance commonly takes around three to six weeks end to end — federal registration is the long pole, with Dubai Municipality's local registration and Jebel Ali lab testing adding time on top.[6] Build that lead time into your launch plan; subsequent shipments of an already-registered product are much faster.

Labelling rules you must meet

UAE food labelling follows the GCC standard GSO 9 for pre-packaged foods. The mandatory fields are:[8]

  • Arabic language is mandatory on the label, and Arabic text must be at least as prominent as any English. Pre-approved bilingual stickers can be acceptable if cleared before shipment.
  • Product name, full ingredients list (descending by weight), and net weight in metric units
  • Country of origin and manufacturer name and address
  • Production and expiry dates in day/month/year format — these must appear on the original label, not be added after import
  • Nutritional information per the applicable GCC standard

That production/expiry-date rule trips up a lot of first-time exporters: stickering a date on after the fact is not acceptable. The dates need to be printed on the pack at production.

Proving it's real: MPI certification (the NZ side)

None of the above matters if the honey isn't genuine Mānuka — and the UAE, like every serious market, will expect New Zealand documentation to back the claim. In New Zealand, any honey exported as "Mānuka" must be tested by an MPI-recognised laboratory against the official scientific definition.[9]

That definition is a 5-attribute test — four chemical markers plus one DNA marker:[9]

  1. 3-Phenyllactic acid (3-PLA)
  2. 2'-Methoxyacetophenone
  3. 2-Methoxybenzoic acid
  4. 4-Hydroxyphenyllactic acid
  5. DNA from Leptospermum scoparium (the New Zealand Mānuka plant) pollen

Honey that meets all five is classified as monofloral Mānuka (3-PLA ≥ 400 mg/kg) or multifloral Mānuka (3-PLA in the 20–<400 mg/kg range), depending on chemistry.[9] Both are genuine Mānuka under New Zealand law. MPI also issues the official health/export certificates that overseas customs authorities — including the UAE — require for clearance.

What this means for importers: ask every supplier for the MPI test results and export certification covering the specific batches you're buying. Honey produced outside New Zealand cannot pass the DNA test for Leptospermum scoparium and is not genuine NZ Mānuka, however the jar is labelled. For a deeper buyer's checklist, see our guide to spotting fake Mānuka honey, and our explainer on MGO vs UMF vs MGS grading.

Why the UAE is worth the effort

The UAE punches well above its population in premium-food consumption. A few structural reasons it suits Mānuka:

  • A gifting culture. Premium honey is a natural fit for Ramadan, Eid, and corporate gifting cycles — high-grade Mānuka in considered packaging sells as a gift, not just a grocery item.
  • An affluent, international consumer base. The UAE's population is overwhelmingly expatriate, including large communities already familiar with Mānuka from the UK, South Asia, and East Asia — so the category needs less first-principles education than a brand-new market.
  • A re-export gateway. Dubai's logistics infrastructure (Jebel Ali, Dubai World Central) makes the UAE the Gulf's hub for moving premium goods on into the wider GCC. Establishing here can open a regional footprint, not just one country.

Independent market-intelligence estimates put the broader GCC premium/Mānuka honey market in the order of tens of thousands of tonnes and roughly US$90–110 million a year, with the UAE among the fastest-growing markets in the region.[10] Treat those figures as estimates rather than official statistics — the data providers themselves caution that "Mānuka" and general premium-honey volumes are easily conflated. What is not in doubt is the constraint on the supply side: New Zealand produces only around 1,700 tonnes of genuine Mānuka per year, so genuine product is finite and competition for it across the UAE, China, India, the UK, and the US is real.

What an importer should do next

1. Confirm the tariff line. Check your honey's HS 0409 treatment under the NZ–UAE CEPA via the MFAT Tariff Finder, and confirm your supplier can meet the agreement's rules of origin.

2. Verify MPI certification. Get the MPI test results and export/health certificates for the specific batches. No certificate, no genuine-Mānuka claim.

3. Get your labels right before you ship. Arabic + English, production/expiry dates printed on the original pack, metric weights, full ingredients and origin. Date-stickering after import will fail.

4. Start registration early. Budget three to six weeks for first-time food registration and clearance through FIRS / MOCCAE (or ADAFSA in Abu Dhabi).

5. Decide on halal. Not legally required for honey, but a cheap, market-friendly signal — use a MOIAT-recognised body if you certify.

6. Lock in supply. Genuine Mānuka is supply-constrained. The brands that secure reliable, certified supply ahead of demand are the ones that hold shelf space as the category grows.

Working with Nuka in the UAE

Nuka is a New Zealand–owned Mānuka producer building distribution across the Gulf. We hold MPI certification on every batch, our pricing tiers sit comfortably in the premium band UAE buyers expect, and we work directly with importers and distributors rather than through intermediaries — so the documentation chain stays clean from hive to shelf.

If you're a UAE importer, distributor, hotel F&B buyer, or gifting partner, contact us for current wholesale pricing, MPI certificates, and samples. Every jar is also independently traceable through our batch verification tool.

Sources

  1. "New Zealand–United Arab Emirates Free Trade Agreement" (in force) — NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT). View →
  2. "New Zealand–United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement" — New Zealand Customs Service. View →
  3. GCC Common External Tariff — standard 5% duty on natural honey (HS 0409); GCC Integrated Customs Tariff 2025. View →
  4. "Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017 on Value Added Tax" (standard 5% VAT) — UAE Legislation Portal. View →
  5. Halal certification scope in the UAE (MOIAT-recognised bodies; mandatory categories) — Halal Foundation. View →
  6. Food import registration and documentation (Dubai Municipality FIRS; honey registration requirements and timelines). View →
  7. "Import Permit" service for food/agricultural consignments — UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE). View →
  8. UAE / GCC food labelling requirements (GSO 9; Arabic labelling, dates, origin). View →
  9. "Mānuka honey testing" — scientific definition and 5-attribute test — NZ Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI). View →
  10. "Manuka (GCC) Market Overview 2024" — IndexBox (market-intelligence estimate; treat as indicative, not official statistics). View →

Building distribution into the UAE?

Nuka holds MPI certification on every batch and ships premium-grade Mānuka the Gulf expects. Talk to us about wholesale pricing, certificates, and samples.

Request Wholesale Pricing → Read: How to Spot Fake Mānuka