Honey Bee & Pollination

The honey bee and pollination industry is a focus of AgriFutures’ research and investment because it helps secure the pollination of Australia’s horticultural and agricultural crops and supports a productive, sustainable and profitable Australian beekeeping industry.

The AgriFutures Honey Bee & Pollination Program RD&E Plan 2020-2025 notes that while the industry produces about 37,000 tonnes of honey per year, the “unrecognised value” of honey bee pollination is believed to be around $14.2 billion per year, compared with an estimated $224 million per year value for hive products. This combination makes pollination central to both the bee industry and broader agricultural productivity in Australia.

The Program’s RD&E priorities are designed to respond to emerging challenges (including the Varroa mite incursion and changing industry conditions) and to ensure RD&E investment leads to practical knowledge and innovation that can be adopted by beekeepers and end users.

Honey bee pollination is used in two core ways across the beekeeping industry:

• to provide paid pollination services that support crop production, and
• to underpin hive productivity that enables honey and other hive products.

Honey remains the major hive output product, with other income sources including beeswax production, and queen bee/packaged bee sales and paid pollination services.

Pollination services involve purchasing paid pollination for various horticultural crops including almonds, apple, avocado, blueberry, cherry, lychee, macadamia, mango, melon, passionfruit, pear, pumpkin, Rubus spp. (raspberry/blackberry), strawberry, and stone fruit (peach, nectarine, apricot, plum). Other industries that benefit from pollination by managed and unmanaged honey bees include broadacre canola and cotton.

All of these uses are central to supporting a more productive, sustainable and profitable Australian beekeeping industry relied on for domestic supply and exports, in addition to securing the pollination of Australia’s horticultural and agricultural crops.

A key element of the AgriFutures Honey Bee and Pollination Program’s goal is to foster a more sustainable beekeeping industry, while also ensuring that it (and other Australian industries that depend on crop pollination) remain productive and profitable long term. AgriFutures’ approach is to support sustainability by investing in RD&E that strengthens productivity, reduces risk, and helps the industry operate responsibly under changing conditions.

The AgriFutures Honey Bee & Pollination Program RD&E Plan 2020-2025 prioritises improving sustainability through RD&E and innovations in hive health including:

• pest and disease control (including AFB, EFB, chalkbrood and small hive beetle; and the management of Varroa mite under Australian conditions)
• feeding and nutrition
• breeding (including the Plan Bee Program)
• labour-saving automation
• biosecurity practices
• pollination efficiency
• floral resource access and quality, and
• greenhouse gas emission and plastic waste reduction.

A great starting point is to read the AgriFutures Honey Bee & Pollination Program RD&E Plan 2020-2025 to understand the Program goal, priorities and what kinds of RD&E activities are funded. We also recommend learning about the AgriFutures Honey Bee and Pollination Advisory Panel.

For ongoing updates – current and past contracted projects, Program updates, project outcomes and extension activities are shared on the AgriFutures website, social media platforms and other official communications channels, with regular industry updates also sent via an opt-in AgriFutures Honey Bee and Pollination Program email subscription list.