It is produced by bees, but it can't technically be called honey — at least, not under the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) definition of honey.

Key points: Native bee honey has a higher moisture content than food standards allow

Native bee honey has a higher moisture content than food standards allow A proposal will be submitted for a native bee honey standard

A proposal will be submitted for a native bee honey standard Native bee honey can fetch up to $200/kg

The honey made by Australian native stingless bees is renowned for its special taste, but its moisture content is too high.

According to FSANZ, honey must contain no more than 21 per cent moisture.

President of the newly formed Australian Native Bee Association Tim Heard said stingless bee honey did not meet that requirement because it contained about 26 per cent water.

Tim Heard has worked with native bees for decades. ( ABC News: Kerrin Thomas )

Dr Heard, an entomologist and ex-CSIRO research scientist, said this issue was one of reasons why the native bee association had been formed.

"We want to look at this issue and work with government and with our industry to create our own standard," he said.

"It will be a standard that is specific to stingless bee honey.

"We hope to define our product and to characterise it and to look at the practices that are acceptable in producing that honey and also the composition of that honey and it will have to have a more relaxed moisture content limitation," he said.

He hoped to submit a proposal to FSANZ within 12 months.

High demand and high price

The honey made by stingless bees is in high demand, particularly from chefs.

"They appreciate its uniqueness. They realise that we're on to something very special here, a food that's got real depth of flavour, some real complexity to its flavour," Dr Heard said.

"They see it as having some real desirability because it is a true native food and it's rare as well so that's very attractive."

And that rarity — a hive produces less than one kilogram a year — drives a high price.

"At the moment the demand for stingless bee honey is so high that the price is around $200 per kilogram — if you can get it," he said.

The size of native bees means they only fly about 500 metres from the hive. ( Supplied: Diane Norris )

Concern for bees

But there are concerns about the impact of extracting honey on the hives.

Diane Norris from the NSW mid north coast breeds native bees and does not agree with harvesting honey.

"[The bees] take pollen and nectar and store it in pollen pots and honey pots, and during cold times that's what they survive on and also what they feed their babies," she said.

"They only come out of the hive at about 18 degrees Celsius, so there are quite a number of cold days that they do not come out, so they need something to eat."

Diane Norris breeds native bees. ( Supplied: Diane Norris )

Tim Heard said there were geographical limitations to the extraction of honey from native bee hives but it could happen.

"In Queensland it won't be as difficult because the weather is more benign and the bees are more active for more of the year.

"But as you move south it becomes more difficult to keep these bees in the sense that winter gets longer and colder and there are fewer opportunities for the bees to collect honey," he said.

"They're in the hive, they're consuming honey, they're not collecting honey, they need those reserves for the hive so if you remove those reserves before winter then the hive could be in trouble, it could starve, it could die through winter.

"As you move down the east coast of Australia, the further south you go, the more difficult it is to extract honey."

"It'll have to be up to the beekeeper to make those decisions."

Other focus of native bees

Tim Zeck maintains around 50 native bee hives to help pollinate his macadamia crop. ( ABC News: Kerrin Thomas )

Dr Heard said another reason the honey was not already available commercially was the interest in the bees as pollinators.

"There are many commercial beekeepers breeding these bees and making more money out of selling the hives than they can out of producing honey or selling the honey, so they're focusing on doing that," he said.

"Once that demand drops off a bit maybe the price will drop a little of hives and people will start to look at the production of honey as an alternative, as another by-product of keeping these bees."

Tim Zeck and his father, Peter, introduced the use native bees for pollination on their macadamia farm near Macksville.

"They're better suited to pollinating a very small flower, which the macadamia has, and to get that variation [of pollinators]," Tim Zeck said.

"It's one of those things, the more help you can get with this sort of thing, who knows, it's a big benefit I think, to have native bees."

Native bees are being used to diversify the range of pollinating insects for some crops. ( ABC News: Kerrin Thomas )

The short flight range was attractive too.

"You try to spread them out through the farm to make sure that they're available, the flowers are available to the hives," Peter Zeck said.

"The stingless bees only travel 300 to 500 metres from each hive, so if you place them reasonably strategically you have an increased chance of that better pollination."