Healthy honey could turn sour
Thu 06 November 2008
Jane Fynes-Clinton, Post-grad Journalism
Clean and clear, rich and deep, Australia’s honey has never been purer.
Broadly regarded as the highest quality honey in the world, this insect creation from Australia’s natural world contains all the substances necessary to sustain life. Honey is nutritious and delicious, and a huge industry has grown around it.
But in a single breach of quarantine, the nation’s sweetest horticultural industry could quickly turn sour.
Australia is the only honey-producing nation free of the varroa destructor mite – a pesky, damaging parasite that has devastating bee colonies worldwide. In the United States, the varroa destructor mite has cost horticultural industries $15 billion a year. It has been found in hives in Australia’s neighbouring nations, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
Scientists and beekeepers say it is just a matter of time before the varroa destructor mite hitchhikes its way into Australia. But the industry vows to make the most of its current clean bill of health, and export bees and pollination services overseas as much as possible while Australian bees remain in high demand.
It is estimated that one in three mouthfuls of the Western diet is derived from bee-pollinated crops. Many food plants, including almonds, kiwi fruit, tomatoes, capsicums and stone fruit require pollination.
Pomona beekeeper Charlie Hacker believes that bees are linchpins in the nation’s food security and economic welfare.
“To put it plainly, if there are no bees, there would be no food – or vastly limited food, at least,” Mr Hacker says.
Beekeeping is under attack from more than just the varroa destructor mite. Other hardships have beset the industry.
More than a decade of drought has made times tough; cheap honey imports in the past few years have stolen some of the market and incursions of Asian honey bees have been detected in the past months in Cairns.
A House of Representatives committee report into the honey bee industry released in June called for $50 million a year to be spent on biosecurity measures and industry research. It also recommended that a national centre for honey bee and pollination industry research, training and extension be established.
The report, More Than Honey: the future of the Australian honey bee and pollination industries, addressed the challenges facing the honey bee and related industries in Australia.
Queensland Beekeepers’ Association secretary Bob Johnson says the industry has not been notified if the recommendations are to be implemented, or when.
“There has been nothing,” Mr Johnson says. “To be honest, I don’t think the federal or state governments realise how important bees are to horticulture, otherwise they would be starting something to turn it around.”
Queensland Department of Primary Industries (DPI) data shows the sale of raw honey holds up the honey bee industry. Other smaller income streams come from the sale of queen bees, bees’ wax, package bees, medical honey and pollination services.
There are almost 85,000 commercial hives in Queensland and each produces more than 75kg of honey a year, DPI figures show. The beekeeping industry adds an estimated $1.6 billion to Australian agricultural and horticultural industries each year.
Mr Hacker says rather than try to be involved in all aspects of commercial beekeeping – honey production, pollination and exporting – beekeepers have specialised to survive. Some went into bee packaging and exports, others went exclusively into pollination and others, like him, specialised in honey production.
“It has been really hard to see things improving, particularly when the government makes decisions like it has to remove all beekeepers from the State Forests by 2012,” Hacker says. “We need the forests to make the honey. Without the forests as part of the pollination process, there will be no industry.”
Mr Johnson says for all its attributes, honey is not providing a healthy income for beekeepers.
“There is little doubt that the clean environment and a high level of regulation in the industry has helped keep the standard up,” Mr Johnson says. “But this doesn’t mean our beekeepers are doing well in their businesses. The farm-gate price hasn’t changed much in the past 10 years or so, but the retail price has gone through the roof. Many find it hard to make a living out of beekeeping and get out.”
If the industry falters – and Mr Johnson says that is a real possibility because of the varroa destructor mite, the tiny number of young beekeepers entering the industry and the farm-gate price of just $3 a kilo – quarantine breaches, government interference and a lack of support will be blamed.
An avoidable end like that, Mr Johnson says, could only leave a bitter aftertaste.
References:
Bee industry
Dept Primary Industries varroa mite information
Queensland Beekeepers Association submission to House of Representatives inquiry.
House of Representatives Primary Industries and Resources Committee report media release.
House of Representatives Primary Industries and Resources Committee report.
ABC Science website link.
Varroa mite spreads in New Zealand, pushes up fruit and vegetable prices: Link
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