AS National Biodiversity Month is observed this September, respected beekeeping mentor and AgriFutures Australia Board member Steve Fuller said the Varroa mite crisis should not be viewed as the end of an industry, but as a wake-up call for agriculture to adapt, educate and look beyond the doom and gloom.
Mr Fuller has travelled extensively across the country keeping bees, mentoring others, and educating people within the industry and has witnessed enormous change since the Varroa mite was first detected in New South Wales in 2022.
At the time, Mr Fuller was president of the New South Wales Apiarists’ Association and found himself on the frontline as the industry grappled with a pest that Australian beekeepers had long known could eventually arrive.
Mr Fuller pushed back against suggestions Australia was inevitably heading towards a catastrophic shortage of bees for agricultural pollination, saying his experience on the ground painted a more nuanced picture.
He works with a number of companies to increase bee numbers and said demand reaching him for additional pollination services had been limited.
“There’s doom and gloom, and the sky’s falling, and all this sort of rubbish has got to stop,” he said.
Government still has an important role to play, but Mr Fuller argues financial assistance alone cannot provide a long-term solution.
“We can’t keep putting our hand out to the Government either,” he said.
“The government coffers are only so deep.”
