Australian producers have been alarmed by moves in New Zealand to trademark the word Manuka.

Key points: In export markets it sells for around $150 per kilogram

In export markets it sells for around $150 per kilogram Plant grows natively in Australia and New Zealand

Plant grows natively in Australia and New Zealand Claims Manuka is a Maori word and should be protected

Manuka honey is a popular and expensive product, thanks in part to celebrity endorsements.

The honey is expensive because it is produced from a single plant — Leptospermum scoparium.

In export markets it sells for around $150 per kilogram, and demand in China has been booming as consumers there seek out its medical benefits.

Industry estimates have put the combined export value of the Australian and New Zealand industry at around $300 million.

Despite the fact the plant grows natively in Australia, New Zealanders say the word, the plant and the honey the bees make it from is theirs.

John Rawcliffe, New Zealand's Unique Manuka Factor Honey Association, has been one of those pushing to have it trademarked.

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He said while the honey came off the same plant grown in both countries, the bee was "representative of this environment".

"It's a lot about New Zealand and that needs to be, because the consumer wants it from New Zealand, wants to know that that word, Manuka, is linked to New Zealand and that's what we're doing," he said.

"The same that's been implied internationally with champagne and whiskey."

If successful, Australian producers of the honey would not be able to call it Manuka — the New Zealanders said they would prefer for them to instead call it Tea Tree honey.

"The word is a Maori word, and that needs to be protected and ensured it's held in its rightful place here as part of New Zealand," Mr Rawcliffe said.

'It has been used in Australia since the 1800s'

Trevor White, from the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council, said the move was ridiculous and that he had evidence the word was used in Tasmania, where the same plant grows, by Aboriginals living there.

"I will certainly be objecting to any applications for having a restrictive use of that particular name," he said.

"Because that plant is here in Australia, and the name has been used in Australia for many years going way back into the 1800s," Mr White said.

The trademark application has been lodged in New Zealand, and local producers will now have to wait and see how it progresses.

One local producer told ABC that Canberra was home to a suburb of the same name, and that the plant was an Australian native, so New Zealand producers would have to mount a compelling argument to have it trademarked.