There remains a wide interest in hobbyist beekeeping, the total number of registered beekeeping enterprises increased from 2021. Photo: 123RF
The number of beehives across New Zealand has fallen for the third year in a row, with beekeepers improving their yield to produce higher volumes of honey per hive this year compared to the 2021 season.
New Zealand beekeepers produced an estimated 22,000 tonnes of honey in the season ending June, slightly below the five-year average of 22,500, but 7 percent higher than last year's estimate.
The latest Apiculture Monitoring Data, released this week by the Ministry for Primary Industries, shows hive numbers peaked at 918,000 in 2019. There were 731,000 hives in operation for the 2022 season, a 10 percent fall on last year's numbers.
Since 2019, the number of operators with 1,000-3,000 hives has fallen by nearly a third.
Apiculture NZ chief executive Karin Kos said the ongoing drop in registered hives reflected a challenging business environment for commercial beekeepers where a fall in producer prices has been matched by rising costs of production.
"Like any primary sector producer, like anyone in New Zealand at the moment, it's the inflation, it's the cost of diesel, it's the cost of treatment, it's the cost of staff - finding stuff and paying staff so everything that a farmer is experiencing at the moment, our beekeepers are experiencing as well."
The higher volume of honey was due to an improved yield (an average of 30.1kgs per hive, up from 25.3kgs in 2021), despite hive numbers falling.
There remains a wide interest in hobbyist beekeeping, the total number of registered beekeeping enterprises increased from 2021 and that increase was exclusive to those with five or fewer hives.
Honey export returns in 2022 were 28 percent ahead of 2019, as the industry continued to benefit from the increased awareness of New Zealand honey's attributes that took hold in the immediate Covid-era.
Kos said New Zealand has sustained the gains made in very difficult trading conditions over the past year, and this should provide some encouragement to the industry, particularly as exporters are now able to travel freely and develop new markets.
She said two upcoming trade agreements were a positive signal for the industry.
"In the UK, we're going to see a drop of the 16 percent tariff on New Zealand honey going into the UK next year and we've got the EU tariffs coming off over the next three years."
The return of tourists to New Zealand should also see sales increase in the domestic market.