Welcome to the first AHBIC newsletter for 2025.  Over the last month the AHBIC team have taken some much-needed time off to re-energise for the year ahead, so activities have temporarily slowed.  Having said that we have been taking advantage of a few, dare I say, quieter weeks to work hard behind the scenes to get a lot of administrative work done.  We have finalised the draft of the AHBIC 2025 – 2030 Strategic Plan and circulated it to member bodies for consultation and developed a number of internal policies to ensure AHBIC is protected when employing staff and contractors which is just some of the less outwards facing work required of the organisation. 

Australia Day Honours List 

A big congratulations to Jodie Goldsworthy who was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her services to primary industries and, in particular, beekeeping, pollination services and food security.  We congratulate Jodie and thank her for contribution to our industry over many years. 

ACT border regulations 

In late December the ACT government announced the removal of all emergency regulations related to varroa border controls.  This will make it much easier for beekeepers to transit through the territory in search of honey flows.   

Detections on the NSW/QLD border 

A new detection of varroa in hives across three apiaries at Boggabilla (near Goondiwindi) has gone live on the DPIRD NSW varroa heat map.  This is the closest detection to the QLD border to date.  QLD Biosecurity have a number of sentinel hives installed along the border with some very close to the new detection.  QLD Biosecurity will continue to monitor the sentinel hives looking for natural movement across the border.  No further detections have been found outside of NSW. 

Biosecurity responses (outside of NSW varroa!) 

The Red Dwarf Honey Bee response continues in northern WA with an additional colony found about 2km from the original IP but still on the peninsula.  The colony was found after a number of forager observation in the area.  Inclement weather has halted surveillance at the moment, but activities will resume once the weather passes. 

A new detection of Asian Honey Bees has been found at the port of Townsville.  This is in addition to the previously reported colonies found in-land at Townsville which were deemed to be part of the existing Cairns population.  This new detection is not genetically related to the Cairns population and is considered to be new incursion.  Testing for mites and virus have all come back negative and the colony has been destroyed.  A communication push is in place in the Townsville area include targeting port workers to assist in detecting any other colonies.  Biosecurity Queensland are confident there is just the single colony and they caught it relatively early but elevated surveillance activities in the area will continue. 

National Hive Numbers 

Our annual hive registration survey was conducted over the last two months and have come in with some interesting results.  Overall, the national hive count has dropped by 5% to 823,291 hives (previously 866,497).  This has been influenced by a 13% drop in NSW and 10% drop in SA.  The overall hive numbers have been supported by significant increase in Tasmania (likely due to new requirements to register hives coming into effect). 

NSW and SA have seen a drop in registered commercial beekeepers by 17% and 18% respectively.  This may reflect the very tough season in SA and the impact of varroa in NSW.  The previous exponential growth in the popularity of recreational beekeeping has now stabilised with only a small increase in recreational beekeepers joining the industry (4%) over the last 12 months. 

Apimondia honey show 

In December Apimondia issued a statement that honey will not be a category at the Global Apimondia conference in Copenhagen, September 2025.  In the very brief statement Apimondia said “The lessons learned from Canada 2019 and Chile 2023 were that adequate testing was impossible if we are to award winning honey at the Congress”.  They described this move as “necessitated by the inability to have honey fully tested for adulteration and make awards at the Congress”. 

This has made global news, and it is yet to be seen if aids in the fight against adulteration or pushes consumers away from honey to alternatives.  We will continue to monitor statements from Apimondia to see if anything can be used and implemented in Australia. 

The Month Ahead 

Over the next month the meetings start to ramp up again.  The first steering committee for the Wheen Bee Foundation National Pollination Strategy will be held end of January, Almond industry pollination committee meeting, Evoke AG and Berry Quest all happening in February. 

We are working on having a Federal Department of Agriculture honey bee workshop in early March in conjunction with an AHBIC board meeting.  The purpose of the workshop is to improve the practical understanding of the decision makers and policy writers in Canberra.  We hope this will raise awareness of our industry and build lasting relationships with the department.

Danny LeFeuvre

CEO