Tasmania’s honey producers are forking out tens of thousands of dollars to maintain access roads into beekeeping areas as the state’s forestry industry contracts. Source: Lexis Nexus
Apiarists said they hoped the recovery of the timber industry would provide access to new stands of lucrative leatherwood trees and help them keep up with demand.
Beekeeper Shirley Stephens said while the forestry business had struggled honey was booming.
“I’ve never had such good sales before,” she said. “We had an average year of honey production and we haven’t anything, all the tanks that you see around you are empty.”
She said demand was so high some producers stopped exporting to save the honey for the Australian market.
“We did do a small price increase – that only made them buy it more.”
The increase in demand prompted beekeepers to try to increase their production.
But Lindsay Bourke from the Tasmanian Beekeepers Association said that presented a new set of challenges.
“We can’t get enough access to good leatherwood stands,” she said.
Tasmanian beekeepers have traditionally followed forest workers into remote areas, using their roads to access the leatherwood and Manuka trees.
As the timber industry slumped, fewer roads were being constructed and existing roads were not being maintained.
That left the beekeepers to pay for the upkeep.
Ms Bourke said two companies recently spent $50,000 to repair a public bridge.
“We would like to see forestry on a stronger footing where they can do a lot more repairs,” she said. “We’d be very pleased if that happens.”
Forestry Tasmania had been trying to gain certification from the international environmental group the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
Assessors from the FSC were in the state last month and a decision is expected by the middle of this year.
Ms Bourke said that would help to boost the forestry industry.
“That’ll help us because forestry will be on a lot stronger standing and they’ll be able to put more maintenance into their roads,” she said.
