Honey production in the United States and Hawaii plummeted in 2021, however, the beekeeping industry and craft remain popular on the Big Island.
Some 126 million pounds of honey were produced across the country in 2021, down 14% from 147 million pounds in 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Hawaii produced about 1.39 million pounds in 2021, down 11.4% from 1.57 in 2020. Production in 2021 in Hawaii, however, was up about 9% from 2019.
As the amount of honey produced fell, prices rose 21% nationwide to $2.54 per pound, from $2.10 per pound in 2020. In Hawaii, the cost of a pound of honey has increased by 30% between 2020 and 2021, with the average cost for a pound of honey in 2021 being $2.21.
In total, in 2021, the domestic industry was valued at nearly $30.1 million, with Hawaii accounting for approximately $2.7 million.
Despite the drop in production noted by the USDA, the production of Hawaiian Queen Co. remains stable at more than 660 pounds of honey produced annually by the six million bees that inhabit the 2,000 hives of the South Kona property. This is in addition to breeding queens shipped to the United States and Canada.
“Beekeeping has increased in Hawaii and the United States,” said Michael Krones, founder of Hawaiian Queen Co., Hawaii’s only queen producer with a dedicated breeding program. “People like to keep bees.”
And the state Department of Agriculture agrees.
“Hawaii’s state bees are doing well right now,” said Darcy Oishi, director of Pest Control. “And while we don’t have the information that allows us to derive the population estimates that NASS does, we do see a general trend of increasing numbers of beekeepers.”
However, COVID-19 has hit the beekeeping business hard and beekeepers have faced staffing issues, increased cost of supplies due to supply chain shortages (especially wood for hives and hive parts) and competition from offshore honey (foreign and domestic).
“We have seen our honey bee-related industries being negatively affected by a variety of COVID-related issues,” Oishi said.
According to the state Department of Agriculture’s beekeeping program, it’s estimated that one in three bites of food depends on pollination by honey bees.
“Having healthy honey bees in Hawaii holds great value at home and impacts agriculture worldwide. In addition to the variety of specialty products produced by Hawaii’s honey bees, including honey, wax, and pollen, the state is a key supplier of queen bees to the continental United States and Canada. Hawaii’s year-round queen-rearing capacity is a critical resource for North American agriculture that relies heavily on pollination by honey bees,” the program’s website states.
Queen bee production in Hawaii is valued at about $10 million per year, according to the program. The state supplies about 25% of the queens shipped to the mainland and about 75% of the queens shipped to Canada. Demand always exceeds supply.
According to the USDA, the average prices paid in 2021 for honey bee queens, bee bundles, and nucs (or partially grown colonies) were $20, $91, and $125, respectively.
Krones, who has lived in Hawaii for 25 years and started his beekeeping business in the mid-1990s, has always been fascinated by bees.
“It all started when I was in Costa Rica. I had a small property growing citrus fruits. And I thought, maybe I could have honey too. I’ve always been fascinated by bees” , did he declare.
But beekeeping is not an easy task, especially breeding and raising queen bees.
“It’s work, it’s a lot of work,” Krones explained. “We have to catch the queen bees when mating. We have to catch her and put her in a cage. And, employees get stung, despite the beekeeping suits they wear.
Queen bees are special. Each colony chooses its own queen bee, and there can only be one. In some cases, the new queen kills her mother or the old queen, so she can run the hive.
“The bees decide,” Krones said.
The key to good beekeeping?
To be very sweet and also productive, Krones said. He also added that the strongest bees are those kept by humans.
Email Megan Hadley at [email protected]
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