Composition of the Industry

Size

The beekeeping industry in New Zealand has shown unprecedented growth in the past 20 years, with an average annual increase of around 6% throughout most of the 1980's. Hive numbers peaked at 335,000 in 1988. Since that time, hive numbers have decreased marginally, stabilising at approximately 300,000 hives.

In 1995, New Zealand had:

5,409 beekeepers
24,764 apiaries (sites where bees are kept)
293,080 beehives

Categories of Beekeepers

In New Zealand, as in other countries with a significant beekeeping industry, most of the hives are owned by a few people or businesses. Semi-commercial or commercial businesses (more than 50 hives) make up only 9% of the beekeepers. However, between them they keep 90% of the hives.

Although there are only 600 registered beekeepers in New Zealand with 50 hives or more, many commercial enterprises also employ staff. There are thus likely to be 3 to 4 times that number of people actually employed directly in the beekeeping industry.

Hobbyists keep only 10% of the beehives in New Zealand, but constitute 91% of the registered beekeepers. Nevertheless, hobbyists are an important part of the industry. For instance, most new commercial beekeepers come from the hobbyist sector. As well, because of the free-ranging nature of bee diseases such as American foulbrood, any beekeeper, no matter how small, can potentially have an economic impact on other beekeepers who keep hives nearby.

NZ Beekeeping Profile: Table of Contents

NZ Beekeeping: Appendices

Home NZ Bkpg Bee Diseases Organisation Information Contacts