A boom in beekeeping in the Pacific has helped improve yield and quality for more than 30 per cent of the country’s pollination-dependent crops, but it comes at an inopportune time as Fiji grapples with a varroa mite invasion and adverse weather events.
It has presented beekeepers in the Pacific nation with a dilemma.
There is an untapped potential to export high-value, niche-marketed honey products, and Australian researchers are working to create new market opportunities for Fijian honey abroad.
But the Pacific’s bees are hungry and struggling with pests, and researchers and beekeepers are all finding solutions.
Fijian Beekeeping Association president Nilesh Ravindra Kumar said intense rainfall had washed pollen away, which had resulted in bees left without a food source.
“We need to do supplement feed, but at the moment all we are doing in Fiji is raw sugar,” he said.
Dr Schouten hoped the Pacific would be able to leverage its unique tropical climate to offer new honey products to the market.
“People are producing value-added products like beeswax, lip balms, candles, soap, surf wax,” he said.
“You can create vanilla honey, comb honey. It can be very specific floral resources.