New AFB Agency Seeks Beekeeper Permission to Expand Remit

The newly named and independently governed New Zealand Bee Health and Biosecurity (NZBB) Trust has taken its next tentative step towards an expanded remit, asking beekeepers to weigh in on whether the former American Foulbrood (AFB) Management Agency should take on greater responsibility regarding ‘general honey bee health and disease management’, including biosecurity preparedness.

Consultation with beekeepers opened on September 8, inviting them to respond by online survey or written submission to a proposal to maintain the current AFB levy rates into the 2026-27 season, and also the issue of NZBB expanding its role.

While the newly minted name of the former AFB Management Agency is more fitting with a wider scope of operations, currently NZBB’s use of beekeeper funding is limited by legislation to control of AFB. Unpreparedness to any honey bee pest incursion is widely acknowledge within New Zealand’s beekeeping industry as a great risk though, and so when the Minister for Biosecurity, Andrew Hoggard, requested they establish themselves as an entity separate from any other industry group earlier this year, the ‘Bee Health and Biosecurity’ moniker was landed upon with a view to potentially filling the void. Now, on the back of the levy-setting consultation for year 2026-27, NZBB is undertaking a ‘sense-check’ of beekeepers.

“We don’t have any preconceived ideas about what the sector might want,” board chair Mark Dingle says.

“Either they want it (an expanded NZBB role) or they don’t and, if they don’t, that’s it. If they do, it leads to a subsequent round of consultation on what it looks like, how we do it, all those sorts of things.”

A two page ‘Bee Biosecurity and preparedness’ document has been circulated to beekeepers to provide background to the three key questions asked of them in the biosecurity portion of the survey: ‘What is your assessment of the industry’s current focus on bee biosecurity? How would you rate the level of preparedness to respond to an incursion of exotic bee pests and diseases?’; ‘How do you feel about NZBB potentially taking on responsibilities beyond its mandate of managing AFB?’; and ‘As AFB levy funds cannot be used for anything other than AFB elimination work, what are your thoughts on how bee biosecurity and incursion preparedness work could be funded?’.

‘NZBB is well placed to map out and facilitate biosecurity preparedness, subject to support from beekeepers. This would include a separate funding mechanism and approval from the Minister for Biosecurity,’ the document states.

Many potential pest species relevant to beekeeping, including Asian hornet, are not present in New Zealand, but likely someday will be. Leadership on biosecurity preparedness within the industry is lacking and NZBB is proposing steeping into the void.

Outlined as beneficial to any biosecurity response are ‘having a plan’, ‘training’, detection through ‘passive surveillance’, and ‘undertaking proactive training, upskilling in exotic pest identification, and remaining proficient in the basics of biosecurity and bee husbandry skills’. In a tip to what an expanded NZBB role might include, the document also outlines suitability of their organisation for the job due to the HiveHub database of beekeepers they keep, ‘in-house technical expertise’ and ‘connections with other primary industries who are beneficiaries of pollination, and connection with technical experts in central government’.

Levy Rate Proposed to Remain Steady

Acknowledging the financial hardship of many beekeepers, NZBB’s proposed levy rate for the 2026-27 year is the same as the two prior, $1.95 per colony and $40 per beekeeper (GST exclusive).

Inline with reduced registered hive numbers, since 2022 levy income to NZBB has fallen more than $300,000, to just shy of $1,450,000 in the latest financial year.

“Over the last three years we have been trimming and cutting, trimming and cutting and there is not much left to trim and cut to be quite honest,” Dingle says. Nevertheless, they will be able to make the numbers work for the 2026-27 year at the current levy rate he believes.

“We have created a budget that corresponds with revenue income that we think is manageable. Does it enable us to do all the things we want to do? The answer is ‘no’. But the reason why we are keeping the levy the same is, we know there are a bunch of beekeepers out there that are still struggling … we don’t want to make life any more difficult for them.”

The consultation round closes 5pm October 12 and registered beekeepers should have received an email or hard copy in the post of the submission form. Those who have not can contact NZBB by email via info@nzbb.org.nz.

SIDEBAR – Angst Still Remains at NZBB Trust

The very formation of NZBB Trust, and lack of consultation with beekeepers regarding it, as outlined in Blindsided Beekeepers See Red at AFB PMP Change, has seen a group organised by New Zealand Beekeeping Inc (NZBI) meet with the Trust. A September 17 roundtable meeting organised by NZBI saw facilitator Ian Fletcher update the 22 attendees on the earlier meeting which he described as “interesting and candid on both sides”.

Key to the concerns of the group, Fletcher says, is “disagreement over accountability to the Minister and accountability and acceptability to beekeepers”. The issue remains unresolved, but it is believed by NZBI that Minister for Biosecurity Andrew Hoggard would consider an effective national level industry body as having the capability to take on the expanded biosecurity role the apiculture industry requires.