Sweet success for Hikiän in Dubai

“Being named in the top four was already really great, but this is unbelievable,” says Hikiän’s master beekeeper, Reko Nieminen, “It all comes down to the purity of our product.”

Nieminen points out that the Finnish climate and clean nature has had a distinct effect on the honey’s success. “Finland’s summer offers a short window for harvesting the honey,” he tells.

Unheated and untreated sourced directly from the bee hives, the end product is 100 per cent free from pesticides and GMO.

“Our beehives are located deep in the forest, and the bees don’t feed on commercial pollen,” Nieminen continues. Alongside the abundance of bilberries, lingonberries, heather and willow herb, “the bees extract pollen from pine and spruce”.

After taking the podium at Gulfood, the Halal-certified product has already attracted interest from the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

This latest award shares space on the company’s mantelpiece with its “Outstanding Natural Organic Product” recognition from last year’s NOPA (Natural Organic Product Asia) trade show in Hong Kong. As a direct result of this achievement, the company’s international customers can already be found in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan.