HOLMFIELD, Man. – Roland Hacault was frank last week in his assessment of the honey harvest in his area of southwestern Manitoba.
“It’s not looking very good,” he said as he removed the lids from honeybee colonies.
“It’s going to be well below what it was last year.”
That sentiment was shared by Phil Veldhuis, president of the Manitoba Beekeepers Association.
Although the honey harvest is incomplete, Veldhuis expects below average production in the province.
Manitoba producers will probably harvest about 100 pounds per hive, he said, “which is about half of what people would expect, I think.”
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The decline in production is due mainly to cool, wet weather that started in late spring and continued into summer, Veldhuis said. Honeybees spent less time flying about in search of nectar.
In Saskatchewan, provincial apiculturist John Gruszka predicts producers will hit the long-term average of 180 pounds of honey per hive.
That comes on the heels of two banner years of production for Saskatchewan beekeepers, who last year extracted an average of 240 lb. per hive.
Alberta honey production is all over the map, depending on the region, according to provincial apiculture specialist Doug Colter.
The province produced 21 million lb. of honey last year. Colter expects similar production this year.
Two years ago, Alberta produced 32 million lb. of honey, its highest yield on record.
Prices are soft for honey as the crop comes off. Gruszka last week (Aug. 11) cited prices ranging up to 75 cents per lb.
“I think you could get 75 cents easy. The question is whether it is going to rise again.”
The greatest influence on prices is the American market. The United States typically produces 200 million lb. of honey annually and imports another 200 million lb.
Drought in parts of the U.S. this year could mean a price rise for Canadian honey, but it is too early to tell. The American honey harvest is usually not complete until the end of the year.
“It’s a buyer’s market and has been for a couple of years,” said Veldhuis, describing current prices.
