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The New Zealand Bee Industry

Released 04 Dec 2011

Overview of the Bee industry

New Zealand's conquurer of Mt Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary, was a beekeeper and so is the head of the Farmy Army, John Hartnell.  Bees are crucial to the primary sector for pollination activities.  As of 10 March 2011, there were 3,251 registered beekeepers, 23,395 apiaries and 388,369 beehives in New Zealand.

New Zealand produces up to 12,000 tonnes of honey each year up to a half of this exported. These exports are valued at around $81 million, including $4 million of premium organic honey.  Yet bees underpin around $5.1 billion of New Zealand's export economy due to pollination activities; a sixth of all exports from the primary sector and  quarter of exports from pastoral sector.

For more information on the bee industry in New Zealand, please click here.

MAF Pastoral Monitoring for Bees

Key points:

  • The New Zealand honey crop for 2010/11 was estimated at 9450 tonnes, down 3100 tonnes (25 percent) on 2009/10. Most regions, except the Northland/ Auckland/Hauraki Plains region, experienced a decline in honey production mainly due to unfavourable weather conditions.
  • The per hive production figure of 24.2 kilograms per hive in 2010/11 was the lowest
    recorded since 2002.
  • The number of registered beekeepers increased 10 percent from 2957 in May 2010 to 3267 in May 2011. Beekeepers with fewer than five hives recorded the greatest increase in number (15 percent). The number of hives registered increased by 13 850 over the same period.
  • Prices paid to beekeepers for most honey products (excluding active manuka) increased by 5 to 17 percent due to ongoing world demand.
  • Sugar, a major expense item for beekeepers, rose 15 to 45 percent compared with 2009/10.
  • A new fungal parasite, Nosema ceranae, was discovered in apiaries in the Coromandel and Christchurch.
2011 MAF Pastoral Monitoring for Apiculture (Bees) (594kB)
 

Get Ahead, get into beekeeping

Are you up for a career in agriculture?  Click here to find out how you can Get Ahead as a beekeeper.  You can also find out more information from Telford; a division of Lincoln University.