THE South Australian almond industry has been presented with an attractive proposition to help the beekeeping industry improve public land availability for pollination purposes, by SA Apiarists Association president Ben Hooper.
Speaking at the Australian Almond Research and Development Forum in Loxton last month, Mr Hooper said better access to public land sites in SA would allow beekeeping businesses to expand and provide better hives to the almond industry for pollination.
Currently only 200 public land sites are available for beekeepers in SA compared to 2000 in Tasmania, 4500 in Vic, 8500 in NSW, 6500 in Qld and 7500 in WA.
"We are a long way behind and it doesn't help our industry and it certainly doesn't help the SA almond industry," Mr Hooper said.
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"Coupled with that, we have suspended sites which means half of our available sites are out of action due to some sort of controlled burning."
Using production calculations, Mr Hooper estimated that each additional public land site made available to beekeepers could result in about $231,000 of almond production and a quarter of a full time equivalent working position.
"In regards to public land, each public land site can hold 100 hives in general," he said.
"Let's say each of these public land sites are of high quality to bee nutrition and allow us to provide a very good pollination hive.
"That coupled with the fact that one full-time equivalent employee can manage 400 hives.
"The general stocking rate in an almond orchard is 6.7 hives a hectare, with a general yield of 2.2 tonnes a hectare and the general price at farmgate is $7 a kilogram at this point in time.
Basically every commercial beekeeping business or company in Australia will be relying on public land access at some point in time during their production year.
- Ben Hooper
"100 hives could generally service about 15ha of almonds. That 15ha would generally yield about 33,000kg of almonds, giving us $231,000 generated."
Mr Hooper said public land availability was a major issue for the beekeeping industry, but also the almond industry.
"Access to public land is vital for us in terms of honeybee producers but also in supplying hives to the almond industry," he said.
"Basically every commercial beekeeping business or company in Australia will be relying on public land access at some point in time during their production year.
"They are the number one protected areas for the richest sources of nutrition for building bees, particularly in autumn and winter periods where we need to build bees just prior to delivering them for almond industry use, which makes it crucial for our expansion."
Also making this a pertinent issue for SA almond growers is the looming restriction on public land availability in QLD, with the state an important source of bees for almond pollination.
A sunset clause was enacted in 2007, which would completely remove the Qld beekeeping industry's access to public land sites in 2024 if not overturned, and consequently eliminate the state as a source of hives for SA almond growers.
- This story first appeared in the Stock Journal.