Buzzwords is a monthly newsletter produced by the National
Beekeepers Association of New Zealand. It was intended to
provide a more immediate, informal means of communication with
the 1200 members within NZ when compared with the more technical
nature of the quarterly NZ Beekeeper magazine.
While some of the contents have interest only in NZ, I will post
issues for this list to keep you better informed about beekeeping
interest areas in New Zealand.
Any comments can be addressed to me (I'm a co-editor and member
of the National Executive of the National Beekeepers Assn)
Nick Wallingford
Bay of Plenty Polytechnic
Voice 64 7 544 0920 ext 6848 Home 64 7 578 1422
Fax 64 7 544 2386
Internet [log in to unmask]
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BUZZWORDS 43 JULY 1992
FROM THE PRESIDENT
With all the debate going on in our industry right now, it's nice
to be able to pass on a bit of good news. The news concerns an
increase in apiculture servicing and shows how important it is
for the National Beekeepers Association to have a strong voice
with government.
The imbalance of MAF services between the North and South Islands
has been of considerable concern to your executive for some time.
Now, as a result of extensive lobbying, MAF Quality Management
has approved a new Apicultural Advisory Officer position,
hopefully to be based in Dunedin. Members should be under no
illusions, however. The new position is conditional on continued
industry support and moneys from government for exotic disease
surveillance and Emergency Response.
The National Beekeepers Association Annual Conference and A.G.M.
will take place in Hastings, July 20-23, at the Angus Motor Inn.
I look forward to seeing you all there.
And finally, sincere thanks to the Buzzwords team for their
efforts over this past year. Well done to you both! (Believe it
or not, this was unsolicited. Thanks, Dudley! - the editors)
AAO POSITION PROPOSED
MAF Quality Management has announced that it will soon be
advertising for an Apicultural Advisory Officer. The position
will most likely be located at Invermay, near Dunedin. The move
will increase MAF's services to beekeepers in the South Island
and will re-establish a specialist apiculture position in the
Southland and Otago regions. The officer will likely take over
management of the surveillance program for exotic bee diseases,
carry out analysis of surveillance samples currently contracted
to MAFTech , and play a significant role in Exotic Disease
Response preparedness. The job will also probably involve
maintaining the southern South Island Apiary Register and acting
as an additional resource servicing the endemic disease control
contract on behalf of the NBA. Interviews for the position are
scheduled to take place at the end of July.
Job specifications and further information on the position can be
obtained from Stuart White, MAF Quality Management, Private Bag,
Christchurch, ph (03) 794 100 fax (03) 656 479. MAF Quality
Management
MAF ORGANIC DASH
A new European Community (EC) organic food regulation, set to
take affect from July 22, 1992, has caused concern for some New
Zealand beekeepers supplying the lucrative European organic honey
market. The regulation (EC 2092/91) requires that any food
product sold in EC countries using the word 'organic' must have
been properly inspected and certified during both its production
and preparation. For products from outside the EC, the
regulation also requires that 'third country' certifying
authorities be app roved by the European Commission before the
products can be sold in the EC as organic.
Currently in New Zealand, both the New Zealand Biological
Producers and Consumers Council (Bio-Gro) and the Biodynamic
Farming and Gardening Association (Demeter) have certification
schemes in place for organic products. But to date, New Zealand
has not been added to the EC's list of approved 'third
countries'.
No one knows for sure whether the EC would directly approve these
non-governmental organisations as third country certifying
authorities, but the speculation is that they would prefer an
independent governmental body to oversee the certification
schemes of private organisations. In EC countries, at least, the
regulation requires such governmental 'control authorities' to be
set up to supervise and approve private certification schemes.
The problem for New Zealand producers is that the our government
appears to have been a bit tardy in forming a control authority
and making application to the EC for approved third country
status. Several years ago MAF began putting together a
comprehensive certification system for organic products, but this
initiative seemed to stall following the release of a public
discussion paper issued by John Falloon, the Minister of
Agriculture, in September 1991.
The paper stated that MAF would 'not move to establish uniform
national standards for organic farming and organically grown
food.' The minister did pledge, however, to 'support development
of uniform international standards and their acceptance by
foreign governments'. He also made available the services of MAF
Quality Management to any producers who wished to either arrange
for inspection and certification based on existing standards or
develop standards of their own. Your NBA executive did just that
by recently developing a draft set of standards for organic honey
production in New Zealand (see Buzzwords 42).
Still, producers were left wondering what the government was
going to do in the case of the EC. Was it going to just 'support
development' or was it going to set up the required control
authority. In response to an enquiry from the Bay of Plenty
branch, we have now been informed that the government has decided
to take the plunge, and is in the process of preparing its
application to the EC. This will be dependant on the creation of
a 'soon to be established' MAF Regulatory Authority which will
act as an overseer supervising private organic inspection bodies.
So far, Bio-Gro, Demeter, and MAF Quality Management have all
expressed interest in being recognised as 'inspection bodies'.
We can only hope that MAF meets the EC deadline and New Zealand
honey exports aren't affected. Because as Deputy Minister Denis
Marshall points out in his letter to the Bay of Plenty branch,
'there is not a great deal of time to prepare New Zealand's
case.'
AFB LAB COURSE SOON
Beekeepers will soon be able to analyze their own live bee
samples for AFB, thanks to a course being devised by Dr. Mark
Goodwin, CRI Horticulture, Ruakura, and Cliff Van Eaton, MAF
Quality Management, Tauranga. The course will teach beekeepers
how to determine likely and inapparent infections in their hives
and should help to decrease the spread of American foulbrood,
which has more than doubled in New Zealand in the last decade.
The lab technique used is a simple, straight-forward test which
can be carried out at home using readily available materials.
The course will get a trial run with members from the Bay of
Plenty branch in late June and will hopefully then be offered to
other branches around the country later this winter. Branches
will be sent further details at the end of July.
GISBORNE ASIA PUSH
Gisborne Honey Producers Co. made a marketing push into Southeast
Asia last month by attending the International Food Industry Show
in Taipei, Taiwan (May 25-29). According to marketing manager
Barry Foster, 'The company believes that there is an extremely
good future in Asia for exports of New Zealand honey, and
particularly to such countries as Taiwan, and we are targeting
this area for our future exports.' Taiwan certainly has good
potential, with a population larger than that of Australia and
overseas investments rivalling those of Japan.
Gisborne Honey Producers markets three specialty types of honey
(manuka, tawari, and wildflower) as well as comb honey, kiwifruit
and honey, and a lemon and honey beverage concentrate. Company
director Brian Smith says all the products had a favourable
response at the show, and samples of their manuka honey mead were
a particular hit. The mead won a silver medal at the 1990 NZ
Fruit Wine competition, a first for New Zealand meads. Export
News, May 21, 1992
HONEY HITS OZ
If you think New Zealand faces a problem with honey brought in by
travellers from overseas, consider the poor Australians. In the
past two months, Barrier Control officials in their airports have
intercepted more than 1000 people carrying honey, and most of
them are New Zealanders!
The Australian government is concerned that the full message
regarding honey exports to their country is not getting through
and has asked both the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and
the National Beekeepers Association to help. Recently MAF
requested all airport shops selling honey to post a notice or at
least advise people that off-the-shelf honey cannot be taken into
Australia as accompanying baggage. MAF is also likely to contact
all New Zealand travel agents in the near future to make sure
they advise their clients about the current situation.
To help out our friends across the Tasman, your executive would
like to remind members that they are currently not permitted to
take uncertified honey with them to Australia. Members also have
a responsibility to inform customers of these regulations if it
is obvious that they intend to take honey products with them
overseas. Hopefully in the near future, protocols will be
established which will allow Australian entry for our certified
heat-treated honey sold in airport gift packs. That way everyone
can take over some nectar from the land of milk and honey!
* Seizures of honey into New Zealand from all sources (aircraft,
mail, yachts) for the 9 months ending March 31 totalled 2015 (224
per month). Fifteen hundred and twenty-two of those seizures
were from aircraft passengers (out of a total 1.3 million
passengers during the period). The seizures weighed in at a
whopping 4.2 tonnes!
ADAM CONTROVERSY GROWS
In Buzzwords 41 we published an article from the Sunday London
Times reporting on the shock retirement of Brother Adam and the
way Buckfast Abbey had handled the affair. One of our readers,
Lee Elliot from Oskar Honey Co., Auckland, was disturbed by the
report, and joined the growing number of beekeepers from around
the world who have written to the Abbot of Buckfast expressing
their concern about the situation and the future of the Buckfast
bee breeding programme.
Lee has kindly shared with us his reply from the abbot, which
makes interesting reading (to say the least). The abbot claims
that Brother Adam's assistant of 20 years standing was not
removed, which is basically correct. But The Times reported that
it was the newly elected abbot's decision not to actually employ
the individual, who had helped Brother Adam on a voluntary basis
for over 20 years and was his chosen successor, which led to
Adam's resignation in February.
The abbot also does not specifically say that the Abbey will
continue on with Brother Adam's work in the future. The abbot
claims Brother Adam 'has been supported by the abbey community
far beyond what would be expected in academic or industrial
circles, where he would probably have retired some 20 years ago,
simply because he is a member of this monastic community.' The
only promise the abbot makes is that 'the principles upon which
Brother Adam's research is based will continue to be used at
Buckfast Abbey.' You never know, maybe that means they'll just
use Buckfast bees in their honey production colonies!
Overseas, the controversy continues to grow. The May issue of
The American Bee Journal reports a little detail that The Times
must have missed. It seems the abbot changed the keys to the
Buckfast bee department hours after Brother Adam resigned,
supposedly for fear that Adam might set fire to his own files!
This and other revelations have led to a threat from queen
producers in the U.S. and Europe to withhold royalties to
Buckfast Abbey worth over NZ$115,000 a year. It is also claimed
that the retiremen t may result in additional lost revenue of up
to a third of a million dollars once the new mite-resistant
Buckfast Bee begins to be sold in North America. According to
Brother Adam, 'the tragedy is that I was on the verge of a
breakthrough' with this new bee.
Negotiations are still under way to try to resolve the problem.
Brother Adam's keys have been returned and beekeeping
organisations in Europe are pledging funds to subsidize the
salary of a competent replacement. But so far the abbot won't
budge on the appointment of Brother Adam's now-famous
'non-employed' assistant.
IMPORT/EXPORT CRITERIA EXPLAINED
How does the government go about deciding whether honey imports
will be allowed in from Australia? And why is our industry being
asked to adopt conformity systems for exports of bee products?
An article in the June 15 edition of Sentinal magazine provides
interesting background to these questions and also explains why
export certification needs to stay in the hands of government
departments.
According to the article, the decision to allow imports is made
by the New Zealand government after an in-depth animal and plant
health assessment has been carried out. The assessment looks at:
- the structure, authority and capabilities of the agency
responsible for agricultural security and health certification;
- the infrastructure and capabilities of the plant and
animal health services available to producers; and
- the plant and animal health status of the country
concerned.
The policy of the New Zealand government is to hold the exporting
government (rather than its producers) accountable for the health
status of its exports. It only approves certifying authorities
which are government agencies capable of independently assuring
health status on behalf of the country concerned. It does not
approve certification from private bodies or associations.
The article points out that this policy is also an international
convention, and that the same criteria are enforced by other
countries on New Zealand. According to the article, 'these
assessments are becoming critical to continued access of New
Zealand products into import markets.' Since most countries are
now making assessments of their trading partners, our government
believes there is a need for an international standard for use in
judging the conduct and fairness of these assessments.
1080 HEATS UP
Pest Control Coordinators employed by the country's Regional
Councils recently received a letter from the Pesticides Board
outlining a new policy regarding beehives and 1080. The letter
recommends that beekeepers be given a minimum of four weeks
warning of any 1080 jam bait applications, and asks coordinators
to provide notification to all beekeepers with hives within a 3
km radius of 1080 jam bait operations.
The letter follows continuing reports of bee deaths from such
operations, including a publicised case in the Taumarunui area
involving the loss of field bees from 120 hives just prior to
kiwifruit pollination. Norm and Mary Dean, the beekeepers
involved, have so far not received compensation for the loss from
the Manawatu Wanganui Regional Council. This is because the Land
Resource Officer in charge of the operation, Mr. Eric Dodds,
believed that in this case the council's only legal requirement
was to no tify beekeepers owning hives within a 400m radius of
the operation. A Rural Report item on the case quoted Mr. Dodds
as saying that until the Dean's poisoning 'he was totally unaware
that bees foraged up to 5km away from hives. Knowing that makes
the ruling of only notifying beekeepers with hives within 400m of
the bait stations totally inadequate.'
We find it hard to believe that Mr. Dodds wasn't really aware of
the problem, especially since the King Country has had a number
of 1080 operations over the years, many of them involving
beekeepers and bee poisonings. Mr. Dodds actually told Rural
Report that he had been poisoning possums for the Regional
Council for more than six years and had never had an issue like
this come up before. Contrast these statements with a letter
written personally to him by John Bassett from Te Kuiti, six
months before the poisoning, which clearly informed him that bees
can fly at least 3 km!
There were a number of other disturbing issues in the Dean case,
including the use of an out-of-date (aerial) application permit
from the Medical Officer of Health and the 'inadvertent' placing
of 50 bait stations within 60m of a public road. In such
circumstances the operation could only be described as 'an
accident waiting to happen' and it may have been fortunate that
the bee hives and the possums were the only things poisoned!
This new recommendation from the Pesticides Board should at least
clear up the problem of Pest Coordinators not knowing how far
bees fly. And the four week notice period should give beekeepers
some additional warning so that they can move their hives. The
new warning period may still causes problems, however, both for
the beekeepers and Pest Coordinators. For the beekeepers, four
weeks' warning might very well not be enough time during
pollination, when the weather is wet, or in the middle of a honey
flo w. And for the Coordinators, the recommendation makes it
difficult for them to act in the stipulated 48 hours once a case
of bovine Tb is confirmed. Council staff don't apply the 1080
baits immediately because they first have to survey the area and
feed out a series of non-toxic lure baits. But according to at
least one Pest Coordinator, there are still likely to be times
when the full four weeks won't be met.
The letter from the Pesticides Board also contained news
regarding the oxalic acid bee repellent for 1080 jam. According
to the board, trials to date have indicated that while oxalic
acid is an effective repellent in 1080 jam formulations, test
results have been variable in terms of possum acceptance. The
letter says that work is proceeding to resolve this problem, and
Coordinators have indeed been instructed to once again carry out
trials with oxalic acid. However, the question would seem to be
whether such trials, carried out in a non-scientific way, are
ever going to produce a consistent (or even valid) result.
As Norm Dean said on Rural Report, 'beekeepers are not against
poisoning possums. They are a curse to us as well because they
kill the forage we depend on.' It's just that maybe beekeepers
have been a bit too cooperative. Some people in the industry are
beginning to wonder whether it isn't about time we insisted
publicly that the government possum programme stop killing our
bees.
End of Buzzwords July 1992
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