After kicking the tires with beekeepers regarding the possibility of extending New Zealand Bee Health and Biosecurity’s (NZBB) work programme beyond American foulbrood (AFB) and to a role more fitting their new name, the former American foulbrood (AFB) Management Agency has handed the hot-potato to the Minister for Biosecurity.

A Tasman‑based hobby beekeeper, Ilona Hart has worked in apiculture for many years and now leads delivery of the ministry for Primary Industries’ National Apiculture Surveillance Programme (NASP) through AsureQuality Limited. We sit down with Hart to find out how the programme is working to protect beekeeper’s livelihoods, and where they might cross paths with her and her team of beekeepers.

Anybody who has spent any length of time as a commercial beekeeper in New Zealand will know of back injury, either from first-hand experience or hearing the stories. Now, in a New Zealand first, Victoria University of Wellington PhD student Jane Pierce has researched the impact of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) on Kiwi apiarists.

It’s a big word, from an ancient language, but if you have ever traded honey, or any food, then you will have likely encountered Codex Alimentarius. The international food standards play an integral role in how honey is traded globally – and even what is deemed ‘honey’. What’s the point of it though, and is it doing its job sufficiently?

If you are a beekeeper you will have invariably moved hives to a different location, and for most commercial beekeepers it is an essential part of the business. Dr Mark Goodwin has too, and made some astute observations about the resulting bee behaviour.

While the end of January might have brought Bay of Plenty beekeepers and their livestock a battering by the elements, Aimz kicked off the month and year with back-breaking work in the field, and frustrations in the extraction shed. A mix of joys and trials, here’s her look into a week in the life of a beekeeper.

The world’s rules-based order has been disrupted. Ian Fletcher surveys the new playing field of geopolitics and explores New Zealand’s, limited, options.

What do you consider the New Zealand apiculture industry’s greatest strength? How about its biggest weakness? What opportunities lay out in front of Kiwi beekeepers and honey sellers in 2026 and what are the threats that are likely to present? We put those questions – plus the opportunity to make a New Year resolution on behalf of the industry – to some of the industry’s leaders and entrepreneurs.

As a yellow-legged hornet (Vespa veluntina) biosecurity incursion response winds into month three, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is simultaneously being praised by the beekeeping community for an expansion of their response funding and front-line efforts in Auckland and encouraged to provide longer-term contingency planning with a view to the invading insect being found elsewhere. The clock is fast ticking on eradication hopes and critics say the beekeeping commun

In a world first, New Zealand’s mānuka honey entering India will soon see significant tariff reductions under a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two nations. While potential for the mānuka honey industry abounds, some are warning that, this time, honey sellers should take the clean slate, “work together” and not “stuff it up”.

Ian Fletcher once helped negotiate trade agreements for the European Union, now he’s at home in the Wairarapa and lending his expertise to New Zealand’s honey industry. So, what does he make of the

Following rejection of the takeover bid launched by Florenz Ltd for Comvita Ltd, the manuka honey flagbearer has announced its intention to raise NZD25 million in new capital, which means that Comvita shares will continue to be quoted on the New Zealand Exchange. But should they be?