Chair Report November 2024 

I welcome MJ Mortes to the AHBIC team.  MJ is the Project support officer as part of Transition to Management. MJ has hit the ground running and is already adding value. Welcome MJ.

AHBIC, along with many other industry representatives, attended a successful Honey Marketing workshop at Sydney University.  The funding for this came from the NSW Bushfire Industry Recovery Package grant monies.  There had been an underspend due to COVID and permission was received to run a marketing workshop. The workshop was led by two marketing experts from Sydney University and University of Technology Sydney.

Hopefully the result will be a National Australian Honey Marketing strategy/plan for industry to consider. As money becomes available, we can implement parts of the plan giving a clear and consistent message about the benefits of Australian honey.

AHBIC chaired the National Biosecurity and Surveillance Steering Committee (NBSSC) meeting.  Long term funding for our BBO’s and surveillance hives is an ongoing issue.

The Education, Imported Honey, Levies, AHBIC events sub committees all have met and are moving forward. AHBIC thanks all the volunteers on our sub committees who add valuable input to AHBIC and the industry.

The next steps in planning for The 5th Australian Bee Congress are to decide on a theme and then approaching appropriate guest speakers to make the event a success in Adelaide 2026.

Stephen Targett

Chair