The success of Comvita, New Zealand’s biggest manuka honey maker, is largely tied to China’s grey channel. The company enjoyed steady sales for years, but cracks started to emerge in 2016 when Comvita encountered challenging trading conditions. Sales dropped significantly due to a slowdown in NZ’s distribution channels to China. Worse yet, due to poor weather conditions, Comvita expects its net profit to fall by more than 50%. Comvita is certainly not the only company to be impacted by the “daigou” channel, which is Chinese for “buying on behalf.”