I was speaking of the supply and demand curve which is influenced by the real or anticipated supply of bees available for the almond pollination. Certainly the Aussie package option has influenced that curve and Big Ag Concerns are very familiar with those concepts that also affect commodity prices etc. 

I don't have any real numbers in front of me but suppose there are 100,000 packages imported in a year and it represents X% of the potential needed for almond pollination. If those 100K are out of the picture how cannot the price for pollination be influenced upwards as it creates more uncertainty? I have to believe that the Almond Board understands that concept and it was an impetus for pushing for the importation.  Its just good business sense to create another supply source if you are concerned about fluctuations in supply and long term trends in price.  

Instead of the potential number of colonies from the USA being a somewhat fixed number or range, this package option makes that equation for available colonies almost infinite from a mathematical expression stand point. If I recall my economics it makes the supply curve more elastic to have the Aussie Option available. 

I think therefore migratory beekeepers are screwing themselves as a group by allowing this to continue.  

Someone with an economics background care to chime in? 

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Access BEE-L directly at:
http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A0=BEE-L