More Than Honey: the future of the Australian honey bee and pollination industries

The Australian honey bee industry is a small but vital component of the Australian economy. While the production of honey and associated bee products represent only some $80 million per annum gross value of production,¹ the value of European honey bees (Apis mellifera) to agricultural production is reckoned in terms of billions of dollars. Taking into account all plant based industries and wool, meat and dairy production, it is estimated that honey bees contribute directly to between $4 billion and $6 billion worth of agricultural production.² In its submission to the inquiry, the Australian Honeybee Industry Council (AHBIC), the honey bee industry’s peak body, noted that:

Honeybee pollination provides significant value to Australian horticulture and agriculture with services being valued at $3.8 billion per annum for the 35 most important honeybee dependent crops. When other crops, including pastures such as lucerne and clover, are added this estimate becomes even larger. If honeybee pollination were to stop completely, large losses would be felt in [the] horticulture sector. This is because approximately 65 per cent of horticultural and agricultural crops produced in Australia require pollination services from honeybees.³

Clearly, therefore, the prospects of the honey bee industry, the producers of honey bee products and providers of managed pollination services, are of vital interest to other primary producers, governments of all levels, and the Australian community generally. It might be an exaggeration to state ‘no bees, no food’, but the food security and economic welfare of the entire community depend to a considerable degree on the humble honey bee.

Current state of the industry

In 2003, the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) released several reports looking at the state of the honey bee industry.⁴ These, along with the Centre for International Economics Future directions for the Australian honeybee industry,⁵ provide an overview of the current position of the industry and the issues it faces into the future.

The Honeybee industry survey took a snapshot of the industry based on the 2000–01 financial year.

In 2000–01 the industry produced an estimated 27,800 tonnes of honey.

Gross value of the industry was approximately $63 million, consisting of:

• $53 million for honey production
• $3.3 million for paid pollination services
• $3.3 million for queen bee sales
• $2.5 million for propolis, wax and honeycomb production

The Commercial beekeeping industry in Australia comprises a relatively small number of professional beekeepers deriving most of their livelihood from beekeeping and a larger number of people who keep bees for profit but who do not depend solely on beekeeping for their livelihood.

There are about 600,000 hives in Australia which produce around 30,000 tonnes of honey each year. Usually 25–30% of annual production is exported.

The principal honey producing area of Australia is the huge swath of temperate land stretching from southern Queensland to central Victoria…

South Australia and Western Australia are both significant honey states, whilst Tasmania is the smallest producer…

There are around 9600 registered beekeepers with around 500 000 hives. However, over 70 per cent of hives are operated by commercial beekeepers with more than 200 hives. Most commercial apiarists operate between 400–800 hives but some have more than 3000 hives. A commercial apiarist with around 20 bee sites on an occasional basis would require a foraging area of native flora of around 16 000 hectares per annum. This emphasises the dependence of beekeeping on native flora on public and private land. About half the accessible apiary sites in native forests are on private land and half on public land.

New South Wales accounts for around 41 per cent of honey production in some years, whereas Tasmania, which relies on leatherwood honey, accounts for only 5 per cent of total production. About a third of honey produced is exported to over 38 countries. Key markets are the United Kingdom, Indonesia, and other South East Asian countries, North America and Saudi Arabia. Generally, honey imports are quite small but rose to 9000 tonnes in 2003 when there was a shortage of honey in Australia. Australian honey is mostly high quality and commands a significant premium over honey from other countries. Most honey is exported in bulk form, but there is a significant and increasing proportion of exports shipped as retail packs.

The drought in Australia throughout 2002 and 2003 coincided with high international honey prices, resulting in substantial increases in wholesale prices in Australia. These prices have now declined but in the longer term, honey prices have increased at a rate slightly more than the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Consumption of honey has followed an inverse relationship to honey prices.

Queen bee breeding is quite specialised and there are growing markets, especially in North America, for queen bees and package bees. This sector of the industry is quite profitable and there are good prospects for expansion—the major constraint is the number of queen bee breeders.

There is also a growing market for pollination services, especially with the expansion of the almond industry centred in South Australia and Victoria.⁹

The CIE report identified a number of key strengths and weakness within the Australian honey bee industry. Strengths include:

• Skills, enthusiasm and mobility of commercial beekeepers—perhaps one of the industry’s greatest strengths.
• The industry is free from Varroa mite.
• Australia has diverse national flora.
• A reasonable organisational structure.
• Reputation for high quality product: some good brands have been established.
• Some medicinal honey and honey products have medicinal uses that can be better exploited.
• Through pollination services, the industry provides major benefits to the rest of agriculture: there is strong demand for these services.
• Industry has a good quality assurance program: however, more beekeepers need to adopt this.
• Industry has good research capacity: there are several highly skilled researchers (but the industry needs to look to encouraging young researchers).¹⁰

Weaknesses include:

• Public relations between beekeepers and the public and with land managers could be improved.
• The industry lacks dynamics in selling its ‘good story’ image to the public and policy makers.
• Many beekeepers are not vigilant on controlling endemic diseases, especially American Foulbrood (AFB).
• The high mobility of the industry is conducive to spreading pests and diseases.
• Hive productivity is not as high as it could be. There is scope for greater adoption of best management practices (BMPs).
• The industry’s workforce is ageing. Not many young people are attracted into the industry, and there is some reluctance to pass on skills in a formal way.
• There is a lack of standards that are adhered to in provision of professional pollination services.
• The industry is having difficulty in enhancing the supply of queen bees to meet growing demand.
• Industry cohesion and cooperation is not as strong as it could be.¹¹

A risk-impact analysis clearly points to the industry needing to address two key issues as a matter of priority. These are: first, to ensure that everything possible is being done to protect the industry from an exotic incursion of varroa mite or other serious exotic diseases; and second, to influence governments to ensure that access to native flora resources is not further restricted and hopefully reversed. The latter will require a concentrated effort by industry leaders to influence policy makers on sound, professional and well-presented arguments and will also require the industry to establish its own environmental credentials through the adoption of an EMS [Environmental Management System].

Because of its mobility and the large number of non-commercial beekeepers, the industry is vulnerable to spread of endemic diseases, particularly AFB. With state governments withdrawing resources in this area, the industry needs to address how it can minimise this risk. Better hive management and increased productivity is one way, but the challenge is to discipline the activities of the few who have high disease risk management practices. Control of AFB is also closely linked to the contamination issue. Any increase in use of chemicals or antibiotics to control broad diseases runs an increased risk of honey contamination.

On the market side, there are many opportunities and it is more of a question of there being sufficient supplies to meet demand. This applies particularly to queen bees and pollination. The industry’s challenge on honey is to maintain or enhance its reputation as a supplier of top grade branded honey which is ‘clean and green’—and so continue to command a premium on the domestic and international markets. This means being able to differentiate Australian honey by brand. Australia cannot afford to compete on price alone against honey from China and Argentina. Efforts by packers and marketers need to continue to export more honey in retail pack form and less in export bulk form. There are exciting prospects for developing and marketing medicinal honey.¹²

Threats and opportunities

The Australian honey bee industry faces a range of threats and opportunities in the future. In 2005 the Centre for International Economics highlighted three major threats facing the industry which required immediate attention:

• The introduction of exotic pests and diseases, particularly the parasitic mite Varroa destructor;
• Access to natural resources; and
• Contamination and mislabelling of Australian honey bee products.¹⁴

Other significant threats, constituting issues of high risk and potentially high impact included:

• Continued low honey prices; and
• Increase in endemic diseases.¹⁵

Varroa is already in all Australia’s neighbouring countries and it is almost certainly only a matter of time before it arrives here. If, or when, it does the effects on our European honeybees will be devastating. It is expected that the Varroa mite will virtually wipe out all feral European honeybees and cause significant damage to the managed honeybee industry. This means there will be large costs to agriculture in terms of loss of output and quality of production.

Varroa has never been successfully eradicated from any country it has invaded (apart from the counties of Semily, Jablonec and Liberec in Czechoslovakia in 1982). It is essential that Australia have a viable, well-organised, well-supported honeybee industry that can cope with a Varroa incursion and be there when feral bees are no longer around.¹⁶

In the short term the ongoing drought is having a significant impact on production. Longer term it is not expected that the industry will significantly expand and may even contract as prices decrease in real terms and input costs continue to grow. The number of hobbyists should remain stable. However there could be a decline in the number of part time producers due to cost pressures.
Pollination services will continue to expand slowly but will not be a significant part of the Queensland industry in the short to medium term.¹⁸

Future—Very dependant on world honey supply conditions, weather patterns in Australia and keeping free of such exotic pests as Varroa. With these and other factors considered the honeybee industry does not seem to have an extremely bright future in Australia. This is in part because the current basic economics found in the industry are not brilliant and are coupled with an ever aging producer population. If continued access to native forest reserves can be maintained and Varroa or other pests that are injurious to the industry can be held out of Australia, then there is better chance that industry will survive. The two previously mentioned points are critical to Australia’s horticulture and agriculture industries for their wellbeing. Critically better returns are required by the producing sector here in WA and Australia.¹⁹

The current outlook for the beekeeping industry as a whole is dim. This is mainly due to a combination of factors which include fuel prices; poor honey & pollination prices; the possibility of imminent incursion of the major honeybee threat, the Varroa Mite; lack of support from government to the resource requirements of beekeeping, specifically in Qld; climate change.²⁰

The future of the honey bee industry in Australia will be limited unless we can attract more young people and retain those already in the industry. The population of Apiarists is ageing with a limited number of young participants. Increased learning opportunities may assist to increase interest in entering the apiary industry. More extension staff in Government roles or programs in schools to increase learning in all agricultural industries may assist to increase participation in beekeeping.²¹

Current prospects for CVAA members are depressed due to recent low honey prices being paid and the ongoing effects of drought and bushfires on the honey and pollen flora. Pollination has provided a positive outlook for some apiarists; however, to be able to provide pollination services, apiarists need secure access to reliable native flora resources, to maintain condition of bees to undertake effective pollination. The main concern for future viability of apiarists is the continued access to the Public Land resources that they rely on for their income.²²

Although the majority of revenue in the honeybee industry comes from the production of honey, there are some significant prospects in the future for the industry to diversify their revenue source and increase profitability. This includes the development of a professional honeybee pollination industry, and exports of queen bees and packaged bees to the US. The US represents a particularly large opportunity as its honeybee industry is currently under pressure by the Varroa mite and Colony Collapse Disorder, both of which are not present in Australia.²³

Medicinal honey represents a large opportunity for the honeybee industry due to the ageing population and the increased amount spent on health care, with over a billion dollars spent on wounds alone in Australia. Due to its unique properties and Australia's competitive advantage in the production of medicinal honey, there is an opportunity for producers to command a high price premium and to diversify its farm income by tapping into a potentially huge world health care market.²⁴

Medicinal and Therapeutic values of Australian honeys are emerging as a way of obtaining premiums for some of Australia's honey. There is research being carried out at present, but much more can be done if funds were available. This is a major contribution to society.

Commercial pollination is emerging as a larger part of the Honey Bee Industry with approximately 60-70,000 hives being used at present, with potential for 400,000 hives to be required just for Almond pollination alone over the next few years.
Commercial Queen Bee and Package Bee production is another emerging diversification within the Honey Bee Industry, some 45,000 packages and 60,000 queens were exported this year, with potential growth of between 10-20% [per] year over the next few years, provided Australian honey Bee genetics can keep pace with markets.

Royal Jelly, Pollen, and Propolis production are also small additional diversification ventures which could grow, depending on the economics (labour costs, returns etc.).²⁵

Diversification is clearly the way forward for the honey bee industry. Multiple income streams will facilitate the growth to a more financially robust industry. Commercial pollination has the potential to become the foundation of the honey bee industry into the future.

Package bees and queen bee exports also have the ability to grow at a substantial rate, providing the Australian environment remains free of exotic pests and diseases and the improvement in honey bee genetics continues.

In our world today, antibiotic resistance organisms seem to be on the rise. Australian honey with therapeutic and medicinal properties has proved to be an extremely successful weapon against these seemingly unstoppable bugs. The benefits this honey affords to the greater community warrants Government funded research to better assess the potential of this wonder product.²⁶

• Pollination has a huge potential to increase in strength as more producers realise the significant increase it makes to the bottom line; and
• The industry provides major benefits to the rest of agriculture through pollination services. There is strong demand for these services and the fast growth of the horticulture industry and industries that are 90 per cent reliant on honeybee pollination (for example, cherries, watermelons, blueberries, pumpkins, almonds and Australia’s own macadamia nut) will ensure strong demand for pollination services in the future.²⁷

The long term sustainability of the honey bee keeping industry requires that it adjusts to a model in which provision of pollinator services is the primary business. To do so will require not only a shift in the business practices of beekeepers, but also a recognition by the plant industries that depend on insect pollination that the use of managed pollination services provides an economic benefit that these industries should pay for.²⁸

There will be a bright and secure future for commercial beekeeping in Australia once Governments, research and training providers, funding agencies and the pollination dependent industries accept the strategic importance of pollination services. If that happens then commercial beekeeping will look very different to today’s community of honey producers.²⁹

No longer is it reasonable for commercial beekeepers to be expected to bear the burden of ensuring the delivery of the wider pollination benefits to agriculture. They should not be responsible for arguing the case and providing the levy funds from honey production to address the R&D requirements for pollination services. They should not be held solely responsible for challenging public policy decisions such as access to nectar and pollen resources on public lands; and certainly they should not bear the financial responsibility for doing the related research on impact of migratory beekeeping (or feral bees) on flora and fauna on public lands. The appropriate level and quality of quarantine services and surveillance should not be judged on the direct value of the honey industry, but on the strategic importance of the pollination services that commercial beekeepers will be increasingly required to provide—especially if feral bee populations collapse—if and when Varroa takes a foothold in Australia. And, finally, the training and skills maintenance for beekeepers should give appropriate emphasis to pollination services; and the level of financial support for training and skills maintenance should reflect the much higher value that efficient and effective pollination provides to horticultural and pastoral industries. It should also be recognised that primary producers who will increasingly depend on pollination services will benefit from a solid understanding of the role of pollination in sustainable production.³⁰

I would like to suggest that there are probably significant areas of flora that would be useful for beekeeping in Northern Australia that have not been utilised. The reason that they have not been utilised is because of the nature of the climate in Northern Australia, with a short wet and a very long dry, and no doubt beekeepers have tried to establish businesses in that area but they have not been able to. I would like to suggest, Mr Chairman, that the possibility of moving some beekeeping investment into those areas of Northern Australia where the rainfall is increasing should be investigated, and, along with that, the issues pertaining to the management of bees in those areas need to be researched, because if we move significant amounts of agriculture into those areas that are becoming wetter, they are going to need a bee industry there. At the moment, in most of those areas a bee industry does not survive.³¹

The Linkages Workshop

…convened to respond to recommendations from the Australian Parliament Inquiry into Rural Skills, Training and Research was the first time that all key stakeholders in pollination (horticulture, crops and pasture industries) and the honeybee industry had been brought together on a national basis. The workshop provided a unique opportunity for stakeholders to develop solutions to address priority issues and to provide these solutions to the Department of Agriculture Fisheries, and Forestry (DAFF) and RIRDC.³³

We were going to hold a pollination workshop—we being RIRDC—in November last year. Our advisory committee met with the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry who invited RIRDC to increase the size of that workshop so that we could bring through as many of the horticultural and plant base industries as possible. We held that workshop in April this year with 75 to 80 delegates who encompassed a number of industries, not just the honeybee industries but everything from lucerne pasture seeds to major horticultural crops. It was not easy bringing those industries to the table. A lot of legwork was required through the process in explaining why they needed to be there. Most of them did not realise the impact that varroa would have, let alone that varroa actually existed.

As a result, the workshop was very successful in educating a number of key industries on the significance of the problem and the implications that will not only be faced by the honeybee industry itself but through a number of key industries…the impact and the flow-on effects move right through not only in terms of the crops that are dependent on honeybees for pollination, but for livestock industries such as our dairy and our meat based industries, and even the wool industry, anything that is dependent on white clover or other pollinated pasture. From that, we had some key outcomes that were endorsed by all the industries in attendance at the workshop. I should add that most of those industries wrote letters of support to us stating how successful the workshop had been.

Most of them would agree with one key delegate that got up at the workshop and stated, ‘This is a bigger issue than water.’ As a result, we were asked to approach the minister to see if we could get some further funding to develop an alliance of the various industries to get them to work together and to develop a business plan that we could deliver to that alliance so that they could move forward. We have just received that funding, for which we are very grateful.³⁴

The primary strategy to address the issues discussed within the workshop was to establish an entity that represents all interests and beneficiaries across the value chain in order to form a co-ordinated and collaborative approach. The entity should have an R&D focus and set R&D priorities. The key stakeholders should be collaborators and deliverers such as:

• Beekeepers and pollination providers;
• Horticulture, grains, pasture industries, and plant breeders;
• RIRDC, Grains Research and Development Corporation, Cotton Research and Development Corporation, Land and Water Australia, Meat and Livestock Australia, Australian Wool Innovation and Horticulture Australia Limited;
• The Australian Government Departments of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Environment and Water Resources, and relevant state departments;
• CSIRO;
• Universities, TAFEs, and Registered Training Organisations (RTOs);
• Quarantine and biosecurity sectors; and
• The New Zealand honeybee industry.
  

A committee should be established to design a working model and gather funding commitments. Other duties should include the establishment of guidelines and scope for the entity, development of a timetable for its creation and submission of a case, resolve education and training model needs, and determine where the entity should fit in the current research and development structure.³⁵

It was agreed by workshop participants that increasing access to floral resources in order to improve the profitability and sustainability of the honeybee and pollination industry, and to improve hive health in order to supply pollination service, is absolutely critical.

In order to achieve this, it was suggested that beekeepers should head up communication to the Federal Minister with the assistance of pollination stakeholders. They should also continue with their development of a national code of conduct for beekeepers on public land, lobby for bees to be included in ecological services for remnant woodland, and develop a honeybee industry profile through membership on Catchment Management Authorities (CMAs) and similar land management strategies. Beekeepers should move forward on these issues through a consensus position with other stakeholders.³⁶

Develop the business skills of the honeybee industry through management education and training and benchmarking of the industry. Although it was recognised that additional funding is required to undertake this strategy, workshop participants also suggested that the honeybee industry should try and gain some funding from education programs that have already been established.³⁷

Establishing public and political support for the honeybee industry and pollination services needs to be driven by all honeybee pollination stakeholders, including industries, research and development organisations, research funders, and federal and state government departments and agencies. It was also suggested that a working group should be established to develop the economic case for the creation of a research and development entity.³⁸

Workshop participants noted that an entity supported by all stakeholders should determine research and development priorities to reduce the impact of honeybee pests and disease on the honeybee industry. Other avenues include research and development into breeding Varroa mite resistant bees and to reduce the development of resistance by mites to insecticides. Workshop participants suggested the following areas should be investigated:

• Beehive health, production, ecology (environment), climate change, and pollination;
• Higher education - Undergraduate/Postgraduate;
• Training Vocational, RTOs, and other;
• Extension -Staff development, employment opportunities;
• Biosecurity, including quarantine, state issues, and policy development; and
• Industry development and value adding.³⁹

Workshop participants noted that communication and extension between pollination dependent industries needed to be improved. Issues that should be focused on include the value of honeybee pollination to industry, community, economy, environment, the creation of pest and disease awareness, and building of political and public support for the honeybee industry.

It was also noted that communication resources needed to be developed such as websites and public relations capabilities. This is to ensure news and stories can be effectively communicated on topics such as science, business, and human interest.⁴⁰

Throughout the workshop, it was noted on a number of occasions that to develop a honeybee pollination industry that has the capacity to meet pollination demand in the future, the honeybee industry itself needed to be viable. This is because most beekeepers cannot survive on the revenue earned from supplying pollination services alone.

In order to increase the viability of the industry, workshop participants developed a strategy that first required the discovery of what was stopping beekeepers from being viable. Once this had been achieved, research and development, and education should be used to solve the problems, although workshop participants did note that the solutions would depend on the industry priorities for viability being addressed.⁴¹

Pollination Australia

• Biosecurity risk management;
• Potential areas of R&D required to support risk management; and
• Education and training.⁴³

• Pests and diseases of honey bees that would impact upon the cost and availability of supply of pollination services;
• Pests and diseases of major pollination crops or floral resources that would affect demand for, and provision of, pollination services;
• Pests and diseases of plants that are vectored by bees, which if they occurred in Australia could result in restrictions on movement of bees, thus impacting upon the ability of beekeepers to provide pollination services; and
• Other pests and diseases of plants and animals that, if they occurred in Australia, could give rise to spill-over effects that restrict the movement of bees.⁴⁶

• Minimise the risk of incursion of exotic pests and diseases;
• Manage incursions of pests and diseases;
• Enhance the capability and performance of the pollination industry;
• Secure necessary floral resources; and
• Identify and develop additional pollination options.⁴⁷

• Surveillance best practice;
• Resource access—landscape management for pollination;
• Improving the economics of pollination;
• Pest and disease management to ensure the ongoing supply of pollination services;
• Living with Varroa;
• Alternative pollinator research/reducing insect dependency; and
• Pollination best management practices.⁴⁸

• There is little documented material reviewing the current education, training and competency standards for beekeeping;
• Education and training for beekeeping is primarily focussed on beekeeping courses rather than pollination;
• Horticultural and agronomy courses cover pollination to varying degrees;
• With the exception of the voluntary BQual quality assurance program, there are no standards or examinations administered by any beekeeping association in Australia;
• A specific gap in industry quality management protocols is consideration of the standards to achieve effective and efficient pollination;
• Enhancing the status of pollination and its biosecurity management in such programs would contribute to an improvement in the standards of pollination management and would assist in minimising the incidence and impact of pests and diseases on the pollination industry; and
• There are no pollination-specific courses in Australia.⁴⁹

• While procedures followed by providers and purchasers of pollination services are covered under the respective Animal Health Australia and Plant Health Australia deeds in respect of exotic diseases, there is another set of issues which become relevant if a pest or disease, such as Varroa, were to become endemic;
• There is a need for a strategy to be developed within the CSIRO and universities with entomological teaching and research capability to take responsibility for the training and development of young scientists capable of undertaking future opportunities for research;
• Pollination Australia should identify the most important and unique skill sets for pollination service providers, growers and brokers and ensure that these reflect the requirements of industry quality assurance programs and are included in the relevant nationally endorsed training packages;
• There is a relatively low demand for training across all jurisdictions in Australia. It would be practical that one institution was accorded a national role in the training of apprenticeships in beekeeping. The consolidation of a critical mass of teaching and industry expertise in one institution would also support training in managed pollination, although this may be achieved satisfactorily through subsidiary virtual arrangements;
• Against the background of industry trends, including possible disease incursions, development of endemic disease training and education issues will need to be addressed as a high priority;
• All future agricultural personnel should be educated on the value and importance of pollination. All agricultural, horticulture and agronomy courses should cover the key knowledge areas of insect/plant interactions, role of honey bees in crop pollination and the adverse effects on honeybees of some farm chemicals used for crop protection.
• Particular education programs need to be developed and implemented to improve grower and farmer awareness of the issues confronting managed honey bee pollination. This will need to involve a range of issues and recognise relevant opportunities for technology transfer in these industries, including awareness through general media and specific conferences and field days.⁵⁰

• Establish a R&D Corporation;
• A new CRC;
• Expanded RIRDC Honeybee R&D program;
• Pastures Australia model;
• Weeds research model; and
• Joint venture between RIRDC, Horticulture Australia Limited and the Grains RDC.⁵³

• The purpose of Pollination Australia is to ensure that Australia is able to maintain an internationally competitive, environmentally sustainable and resilient agricultural sector by addressing the imminent opportunities and risks confronting the pollination dependent industries.
• The context is that—
  • The pollination industry is still in its infancy in Australia;
  • Growing demand and national benefits in ensuring a professional pollination service;
  • The value of honey bee pollination is estimated at $3–4 billion per annum;
  • Significant risks facing the pollination dependent industries of Australia, especially biosecurity risks;
  • Difficult to address the key risks as individual industries;
  • Forming an alliance is the most effective mechanism to ensure vibrant, resilient industries dependent on pollination can be sustained.
• Key messages from the workshop are:
  • Necessity for a collective group to be formed to prepare an integrated response to address the immediate risks;
  • New Zealand experience reinforces the high risk of an incursion and the need for a proactive approach;
  • Modelling shows that preparedness will reduce the impact of an incursion;
  • Identified the need for a professional pollination service to meet exponentially growing demand.
• Key workshop outcomes are:
  • Alliance will form immediately and initial seed funding will be provided by industry;
  • Focus will be on finalising the risk management framework underpinned by R&D and education and training priority actions;
  • Alliance will deliver a strategy to address biosecurity risk, both pre and post incursion;
  • Alliance will ensure that pollination industry plans for a professional service can be delivered;
  • Pollination dependent industries have agreed to drive the alliance in collaboration with pollinators;
  • Agreed that a statutory levy and matching of any voluntary contribution be pursued.
• The following key ways forward were identified:
  • Critical to bring Plant Health Australia and Animal Health Australia together to develop a joint pollination risk management plan IMMEDIATELY;
  • Alliance members will have their first meeting in April 2008 to finalise the business plan to develop and implement the action plan, including:
    • Minimise the risks of incursion of exotic pests and diseases
    • Management of incursions of pests and diseases
    • Enhance the capability and performance of the pollination industry
    • Secure necessary floral resources
    • Additional pollination options.⁵⁴

Committee conclusions

AHBIC, Submission no. 56, p. 28. Back