Australia Honey Bee Producers Fight Off Asian Competition

He warned that the impact of the Varroa mite and the drop in bee numbers would be lower food stock and higher food prices.

"We mass produce food - it has to be cheap and affordable and we can't therefore afford this major decline in bees - we need them for the pollination," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Mr Baer.

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Biosecurity Queensland initially detected the incursion of the Asian honey bee in Cairns in May 2007.

A report made by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) in April 2010 estimated the potential cost of the Asian honey bee incursion to public health to range from $84,114 to $88,637 per 100,000 population. In the area of public nuisance, the cost is placed from $4,580 to $33,660 per 100,000 people.

Outside bee farmers who consider bees their source of livelihood, bees have been considered more of a nuisance due to the costs of removal and extermination.

The RIRDC report cited a study by The Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy that up to 3 per cent of the country's exposed population could have immediate systemic allergic reaction to an insect sting, which would mean about 600,000 Australians are potential subjects to the condition.

The impact of it would be to add to public health costs estimated at 1,012 hospitalisations for bee stings with an average stay of 1.2 days. The estimate is based on a 2002 to 2005 study which reported 2,754 hospitalisations on account of bee stings or 981 per year.

The RIRDC drew up a Response Plan eradication campaign to protect Australia's honeybee industry which is made up of about 1,700 commercial producers spread throughout the country. Most of these producers are small and medium-scale enterprises.

Bee farmers at mostly migratory. They move to areas where the nectar flows are strongest. They rely on the coastal and other areas with high rainfall with eucalyptus forest for the production of honey.

The RIRDC report said the Apis cerana javana or type of Asian honey bee strain which Australia is battling is endemic to Java, Indonesia. The same specie is considered an invasive pest in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands because it could not be domesticated and its pollination activity could not be controlled for managed pollination services.

However, while the Asian honey bee produces little honey, it robs honey from European honey bees (Apis millifera) which causes significant colony losses, cut in commercial honey production and lower managed pollination.