Project snapshot: Increasing the value of Australian honey as a health food
Honey has a long history of use to treat digestive ailments and research suggests honey acts as a prebiotic food that favourably changes the balance...
HONEY BEE & POLLINATION
Focus on Pollination Research and Development
Published: 17 Oct 2013
Author(s): RIRDC
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Nearly two thirds of Australian crops across 35 industries are dependent on honeybee pollination for most of their production – making the humble honeybee critical to the profitability of those plant industries.
The value of honeybee pollination to the horticultural and agricultural industries is estimated to be about $4 billion annually. However, while a proportion of crop producers pay for the pollination service they receive, the majority rely entirely on incidental (free) pollination via the wild
honeybee population.
Decimation of Australia’s wild honeybee population due to an exotic pest or disease incursion would remove this free service and place significant strain on commercial pollination services, resulting in lost crop production for pollination dependent agricultural and horticultural industries.
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