Founded in 2018, Miel Martine is a honey farm operating some 1800 hives and attached to the Castle of La Martinette in the heart of Provence (France). From the very beginning, the company has focused on the traceability of its honeys in order to ensure the quality of its products for consumers.

On the occasion of the return of the hives to the field, we interviewed Michel Pikhanov, founder of the brand, about his commitment and his vision of the honey-producing sector.

1. Michel, could you take us back to the foundation of Miel Martine? How did traceability become one of the essential elements of your products, differentiating you from other producers?

I had already worked with Product DNA on a previous project and I found the concept of traceability very important. When I started with the Miel Martine project, knowing about all the fake honeys on the market, it seemed obvious to me that I had to promote and communicate traceability through a platform such as respect-code.org.

Enabling the end-customer to access every production step, from the harvest to the packaging of the honey, genuinely adds value and is a guarantee of transparency. It is a way of reassuring both the retailer and the customer on the origin of the honey they purchase.

2. How does Miel Martine promote traceability with its consumers? And with its clients (B2B)?

We offer POS (point of sale advertising) to our B2B customers. These POS highlight the traceability of our honeys and we train our resellers, so that they are able to discuss and explain our approach. They are also able to demonstrate how to access traceability with our products by scanning the QR code on the back of each jar.

Last but not least, we regularly communicate information about this on our website and on social networks.

3. How do you see the evolution of consumers demand, as well as the requirement of the industry in terms of transparency and traceability in the future?

Consumers want to have immediate access to all information and in full transparency. This transparency requirement will, in time, become a standard and consumers will expect to have access to tools that will allow them to obtain information, easily and intuitively.

4. What are your ambitions for 2021?

Our objective is to continue our growth, which was slowed down by the pandemic, with the development of new activity sectors such as business gifts. We are also resuming our business with those customers who are currently affected by the health situation, hoping that the latter will be soon behind us soon.

Read Miel Martine case study

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