As Australia grapples with the spread of the deadly varroa mite parasite, beekeepers and farmers are worried about its effects on food production and prices. The national shift to a parasite management strategy poses a significant threat to pollination services, and there’s risk there might not be enough bees available to meet the demand of fruit and vegetable growers.
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00:00Beekeepers are entering uncertain times, as the Varroa mite continues to cut a destructive
00:11path across Australia.
00:13Learning and understanding how Varroa will spread and impact beekeepers is a huge unknown.
00:22While New South Wales and Victoria are battling outbreaks, other states are preparing to manage
00:29the unknown.
00:30We're really just looking at what happened overseas when Varroa were initially established
00:35in some of the other countries around the world that are relatively similar to our honey
00:39production rates.
00:41So we may be about 30% colony losses.
00:45Varroa mite treatment and colony losses will push up costs for beekeepers.
00:50We think roughly around $50 a hive annually.
00:57Varroa's growing pollination-dependent fruit and vegetables are also facing increased costs.
01:03About 35 industries are dependent on honeybee pollination, with many relying on benefits
01:11from unmanaged feral bees.
01:13When they succumb to Varroa, we will lose all of that free pollination that we've come
01:18to understand is really holding up some of our pollination-dependent industries.
01:25This grower in the Adelaide Hills uses pollination services and feral bees.
01:31The major concern for us in our business is the understanding on just how much free pollination
01:37we're getting from feral hives.
01:40Farmers will be forced to pay for more pollination services to make up for the loss of feral bees.
01:47There'll be a cost per hectare increase and we'll have to manage that either be at the
01:51brunt or try and increase the cost of our wholesale product.
01:56With a third of Australia's commercial beekeepers expected to be wiped out, beekeepers don't
02:03know if there will be enough pollination services to meet demand.
02:08There'll be a time lapse between can beekeepers at that time of year develop enough colonies
02:15to provide the pollination services required.
02:18With demand and prices for pollination services set to rise, growers say there will be flow-on effects.
02:24Producers say shoppers are likely to feel the sting at the checkout.
02:30Unfortunately consumers will end up having to pay more for crops that are dependent on
02:35bees because the input costs will be higher with needing pollination.
02:41If there's a particular season where the hives are very weak, the hives are dying in really
02:48large significant numbers, then we could see an impact on production and then over a longer
02:54term that could impact prices.
02:57While beekeepers face the biggest challenge in the industry's history, the big question
03:02for consumers is how much food prices will be forced up.