CEO Report November 2025

Over the last month Bianca and I have been busy responding to many inquiries and supporting industry as varroa continues to impact beekeepers across the country.  Varroa is moving slowly across the country with recent detections in South Australia and beekeepers in Victoria and Queensland reporting detection across much of those states. 

Low honey production across the southern regions is still impacting beekeepers particularly through South Australia.  Production through NSW into Queensland appears to be reasonable. A combination of increased exports and lower national production has reduced the national honey inventory.  This has resulted in a modest price increase from the countries largest packer, hopefully a sign prices might recover. 

National Biosecurity Forum  

Earlier in November I travelled to Canberra to participate in a National Biosecurity Forum to discuss biosecurity system reform.  The one-day workshop had biosecurity leaders from both government and industry in the room.  The rich discussion proved productive, as it worked through the current challenges and potential solutions.  

The increasing frequency and complexity of emergency plant pest detections over the last decade is stretching the system.  Within the plant system, which includes honeybees, there has been 135 notifications to CCEPP of new pests with 18 of those becoming active responses.  Honeybees represent a significant amount of those 18 responses over the last decade with varroa, red dwarf honey bee, Asian honey bee etc. 

Beekeeping in the Northern Territory  

AHBIC has been actively working with NT famers and the NT government to facilitate the establishment of an NT beekeepers’ association.  AHBIC has agreed to establish a subcommittee to investigate the feasibility of establishing an association.  The first meeting which will include as many NT beekeepers as possible, NT farmers and NT government and is scheduled before the end of year.  

Skill Shortage Lists 

We have been receiving inquiries from industry about the recent publishing of the Occupation Shortage Lists (OSL) in which the honeybee industry has recently been removed.  In 2024 AHBIC worked hard to get the honeybee industry back on the OSL list in which we were successful but unfortunately, we have dropped off again.  This potentially can impact training funding and subsidies for courses domestically.    

The OSL list is determined by the number of advertised job vacancies within our industry and how long they take to fill.  This form of measurement is not conducive with how our industry operates and requires a significant and sustained effort from AHBIC to maintain our presence on the list and despite this effort, at times we may still not meet the criteria set by Skills Impact. The consultation for this list opens again in January and it will be important for industry to provide submissions and survey responses to ensure the honeybees are re-instated to the list. 

Conversely the Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL) is a separate list that informs government around many policies including skilled migration visa requirements. AHBIC has provided a submission to this list in September and continues to correspond when reviews return again, often on a quarterly basis. 

Palm Workers Scheme 

The Chair, Jon Lockwood and I met with the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) to discuss the limitations of the PALM scheme for the beekeeping industry.  As a result of the meeting DEWR have committed to investigating the possibility of modifying the accommodation requirements to better suit our industry.  We look forward to progressing these issues and increasing the utilisation of the PALM scheme in our industry. 

The Month Ahead 

Leading into Christmas we are working to prepare the levy reform communications ready to launch in the new year.  Whilst we hoped to have information out to industry before the end of year time has run away on us.   

Due to much of the AHBIC team having a well-earned rest over the Christmas period it is unlikely that we will send out a December newsletter.  So, I would like to wish everyone a safe Christmas and I hope the new year brings more honey flows and better honey prices. 

 

Danny LeFeurve

CEO