ApiNZ Still Grasping for a Survival Plan

More than a month on from members granting Apiculture New Zealand (ApiNZ) a ‘stay of execution’, leadership is still searching for answers and yet to set a date for an Annual General Meeting (AGM) pivotal to the group’s future. However, work is continuing behind the scenes and a “process” being followed so a potential new model for the industry-good body can be proposed.

 ApiNZ chief executive Karin Kos is down to being paid part-time hours, but says thanks to some extra funding from members they have enough in the bank to get them through to an AGM in late-June or early-July, when members will again be presented with the board’s plans for the future of the group.

“Late June or early July” is looking the likely timeframe for an in-person AGM for 2025, with chief executive Karin Kos hoping they will confirm a specific date and venue in May.

While the ApiNZ board had resolved to dissolve the incorporated society – which has been in existence since 2016, but has roots going back 112 years through the National Beekeepers Association – at a Special General Meeting on March 25, members voted to delay the decision.

“Our mandate from our members was really clear, that they wanted to see what we could do as ApiNZ, as an industry organisation. So, that is our priority and we need to follow that process first,” Kos says.

The chief executive, now on part time hours along with two other staff, says the organisation will be financially stable through to July, thanks to some extra contributions recently from members.

“We have been really pleased with the top up in funding we have received from our members so we can keep going for the next three months. It has been really helpful and a vote of confidence. We need to respect that and find another way,” she says.

Members have also been contributing ideas as to what an improved organisation might look like and on an April 29 email to the membership the board listed a range of desired features, including a strengthened regional network; a need to come together for conferences; a strong voice to regulators; a need for affordable membership fees; and a “need to bring in younger leaders who can bring new ideas to the table and drive industry direction”.

ApiNZ’s latest round of consultation with members comes after the group benefitted from $225,000 worth of crown funding through the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Food and Fibres Future programme, combined with $158,500 from the Honey Industry Trust, Comvita and Mānuka Health, to run a two-year project into determining a more sustainable future for the apiculture industry. A proposal to merge with the more well-heeled Unique Mānuka Factor Honey Association was denied by those members in February, thus leaving the Honey Industry Strategy seemingly stalled, despite its $383,500 price tag.

Taking feedback from existing membership – which the current governance board has deemed too thin on the ground to support their aspirations for the group – might be seen as being preached to by the converted. It is those members who have left ApiNZ, or never cared to join, whose needs must be considered if the financial base is to be expanded. The group has also been suffering falling membership and thus funding for numerous years, and the current board has lacked the governance dexterity, or desire, to shape the group for an industry-landscape far removed from the highs of the ‘mānuka boom’ of the 2010s.

“We need to complete the next piece of work, in terms of what a revised ApiNZ could look like, and then present that to members in late-May before an AGM in late-June or early July. Some people are going to want to come in person and have a decent session,” Kos says.

While nothing has been set in stone for that AGM, it is understood a room in Wellington has been tentatively booked for two days, June 30 and July 1. Kos says they would ideally wrap more apiculture related activities around the AGM to make it more appealing to attend, but at this point the “process” of taking on board member feedback and then designing a plan to present back to them at the AGM is priority number one.

“Can we stand up a revised ApiNZ? That needs to be our focus and our priority.”

With fellow industry-good body New Zealand Beekeeping Inc (NZBI) currently undertaking their own process of all-inclusive roundtable meetings with industry groups, the two bodies run the risk of treading very similar paths to potentially very similar destinations, only to continue to split resources in a small and financially-struggling industry.

Nathan Guy sits as independent chair of the ApiNZ board, who members effectively asked to ‘try again’ after a proposal to dissolve the group was put on hold in March.

There is hope for greater cohesion though, with ApiNZ deputy chair Tony Wright attending the second of NZBI’s roundtables on May 1, and Kos saying that once they have a potential future operating model approved by their members then that will be the time to work more closely with the rest of the industry, “because we don’t want double-up”.

Whether a model that continues operations at ApiNZ can be defined by the board and an insular communication process remains to be seen, with dissolution having very recently been the preference.

“All options are on the table, from a continuation to winding-up,” Kos says, adding “what will come out of it, I don’t know”.