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 European
Honeybees (Apis mellifera) were first introduced into
New Zealand in 1839. With a range of native flora found nowhere
else in the World, plus a number of introduced plants that grow
prolifically in New Zealand's temperate climate, our honeybees
create honeys that are the very distillation of New Zealand's
essential ancient Gondwanaland origins.
 These
honeys cover a huge range of flavour types and properties. From
mild to very strong flavoured, light to dark coloured, delicately
perfumed to pungent and even honeys with significant antibacterial
properties.
Statistics
Today, New Zealand has 320,000
beehives that produce an average annual crop of 8,600
tonnes of honey. These hives are owned by nearly 5,000
beekeepers and are spread over 22,000 apiaries (sites where
beehives are kept). The greater number of these beekeepers
are hobbyists with 88.3% of them owning  an
average of only 5 hives. The remaining 11.7% of beekeepers are
commercial and semi commercial operators managing an average
of 513 hives each.
Pollination
Over 1/3rd of New Zealand's beehives are moved into pollination
of commercial crops each year. This includes kiwifruit, apples,
pears, apricots, small seeds and pastoral pollination. It is
estimated that the value of pollination from beekeeping is worth
around NZ$1-2 billion annually to the New Zealand economy. The
largest portion of this is the pollination of clover
in pastures, where the clover provides a nitrogen fixing benefit.
Live Bees
New Zealand provides both package bees and queen bees for export.
This trade started with the export of queen bees to Canada in
the late '60s and has grown to where large quantities of exports
of queen bees and packages are sent to many countries around
the World.
Most of New Zealand's beestock is "Italian" strain
(Apis mellifera ligustica) but in many areas "English
Black" (Apis mellifera mellifera) bees are endemic.
Other Hive Products
A range of other hive products are produced in New Zealand.
Pollen and Propolis are the two most important ones. Others
are Royal Jelly and Bee Venom.
Few
Bee Diseases
It
is fortunate  that
during the early introductions of honeybees to New Zealand,
few of the World's major bee diseases accompanied them. Today
New Zealand's isolation and agricultural quarantine requirements
help to perpetuate this situation, but as shown by the discovery
of Varroa mites in New Zealand in April 2000, we are not immune
to the increasing spread and globalization of pests and diseases
Worldwide.
The current lack of European Foulbrood
and a nationwide Management Strategy for American Foulbrood
is the reason that the feeding of antibiotics for these bacterial
brood diseases is illegal in New Zealand, unlike most other
major honey producing countries where this is routine.
As a developed country, but with a small population, New Zealand
has the advantage of both large areas of natural flora, plus
modern, sanitary processing plant and equipment.
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