The latest Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) 2020 Apiculture Monitoring report has highlighted how a good harvest season last summer translated into a surge in volumes of all honey produced, with per hive yield of manuka up 39% on the year before in the North Island.
Overall however, the sector experienced a slide of 6% in average export prices despite a weaker NZ dollar, with a significant 28% export volume increase driving the overall 20% increase in total export value.
The report has highlighted the growing gap between high-value manuka and all other multi-floral manuka/non-manuka honeys.
The average export price for mono-floral manuka honey was $55.36/kg, compared to $32.44/kg for multi-floral manuka, and $22.50/kg for non-manuka honeys.
The overall production last season of 27,000 tonnes marks a new industry record for volume and was well up on the industry’s 10-year average of 17,972t. Three-quarters of the country’s honey was produced in the North Island.
Apiculture New Zealand chief executive Karin Kos says last season’s harvest was a healthy one after two relatively light years of honey yields.
The report also notes the number of beekeepers with over 50 hives dropped by 5%, alongside an increase in hobbyist beekeepers.
Registered “mega” commercial operations with over 3000 hives also dropped by 5% to 45.
The overall increase in operator numbers to 6100 from 5799 in 2019 is solely due to an increase in hobbyist operators with less than 50 hives.
Kos says the impact of higher operating costs and lower returns for non-manuka honey may be forcing some operators to re-evaluate their businesses.
“Smaller beekeepers without manuka access are exiting. This is the first drop we have had in numbers for 15 years, and maybe we are seeing a bit of a correction,” Kos said.
Some industry scientists have suggested NZ may have become overstocked with bees in recent years, as more beekeepers enter the industry chasing the lure of high manuka returns.
Last year NZ recorded more beehives than Australia, with the number of hives quadrupling to one million by 2019.
But Kos says there has been no science done to determine what peak bee numbers may be.
“What we will be looking at is what will the longer-term trend be in numbers,” she said.
The report notes the profitability of most beekeeping businesses did not improve in 2019-20, and for some it was lower than other years. Commercial operators are now either consolidating their businesses or are seeking work outside their beekeeping businesses to supplement income.
Kos says this harvest season is proving a tough one, thanks to a wet, cold spring impacting on flowering in many parts of the country, and yields are anticipated to be well back on last year’s bumper crop.
“It has proven to be a very stop-start season to date,” she said.
She says the need to raise the profile of NZ honeys other than manuka was highlighted by the report’s latest results.
“We have a good story to tell with manuka, but there is still work to do with the other equally high-quality varieties NZ has,” she said.
“It comes down to the industry to invest in it itself.”
She conceded the sector would have to pick its time when considering revisiting a commodity levy payment to help fund such activity.
In 2019 beekeepers rejected proposals to impose a commodity levy to help fund industry research and marketing.
Kos says a discussion about future funding and growing value would be a key topic at the industry conference in Rotorua on June 23.
