Economic+threats+posed+to+agriculture+industry+(OW)


 * Economic threats posed to agriculture industry**

Grossing only about $65 million per year Australia’s honey bee industry is a relatively small contributor to our overall agriculture sector’s $12.5 billion per annum, (Centre for International Economics, 2005). It is expected that that the damage caused by a //Varroa Destructor// infestation on a similar level to that of New Zealand’s infestation in 2000 would cost Australia $55 million per year in decline in crop yields as a result of reduced crop pollination availability.

Farms growing crops that use bees as a method of pollination will often import hives from bee farms to ensure that crops are fully pollinated so the highest possible yield can be achieved. Some crops such as Apples, Avocado and Rockmelon are completely reliant on imported bees for pollination. In New Zealand, kiwi fruits and other pip fruits that rely wholly on imported bees for pollination suffered up to 5% losses in yield from previous years upon the introduction of //Varroa// (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry NZ. 2000). If this were to occur in Australia, in a worst case scenario the Apple industry alone could be looking at losses of up to $14 million per year.

Table 1: Crop Value and their reliance on Bee pollinators (Cook, D. C. et al, 2007)