Report from the American Beekeepers Federation Conference – ABC Panel Discussion

The 80th annual American Beekeepers Federation (ABF) tradeshow and conference was held January 3 – 7, 2023, in Jacksonville Florida. A strong contingent of Canadian beekeepers and industry attended, including ABC Executive Director Connie Phillips, Alberta Tech Transfer Program Lead Dr. Renata Labuschagne, ABC Chair Curtis Miedema, and myself, ABC’s CHC Delegate.

The Commission hosted a panel discussion on January 4, titled, ‘Re-establishing Export Trade in Packaged Bees Between the US and Canada’. Panel members included myself, owner of Paradis Honey Ltd. Mike Paradis, Apimondia President Dr. Jeff Pettis, owner of Bee Buss, Charles Linder, and Connie Phillips.

I have to admit, after beginning my initial presentation the room seemed quiet and somewhat empty and thoughts of this going poorly crept into my mind. As I continued to read (with only an hour timeslot, my intention was to plow through the deck as fast as possible so the real discussion could happen), I could hear the room getting louder. I was told after that there was a genuine buzz outside the conference hall. By the time I’d finished my introduction, the room was full. I'm not suggesting we garnered the same attention as some of the other speakers such as Dr. Samuel Ramsey, but I think we did fairly well.

One of our main goals of the panel discussion was to garner support from American Beekeepers, specifically the ABF and the American Honey Producers Association (AHPA).

Some of the more surprising comments we heard related to the shock and misunderstanding of why the border between Canada and the US was still closed to the import of packaged bees. Many of the beekeepers attending the session and conference were from the south east US and have been able to adapt their management practices to manage Africanized Honey Bees (AHB) and Small Hive Beetle (SHB), two things that are fairly common in some parts of the south east. However, we are also aware that bee breeders in regional safe zones within the United States work very hard to ensure their apiaries are free of both AHB and SHB.

A significant concern raised during and after the panel, was how Canada can import large quantities of packages from Australia and yet be so against US packages. The discussion continued around the trade implications and the real fear from American beekeepers of the Tropilaelaps mite coming to north America from Canada via Australian packages. We also heard that the US package industry is shrinking as the social media drive has pushed for nuc production similar to what we see in Canada. Most of the package producers I spoke to were hesitant about Canadians out bidding their loyal domestic customers in April, but were very interested in the opportunity of May packages.

I tried my best to present a balanced approach and made it clear I was representing Alberta's industry and encouraged everyone to look into both sides of the discussion.

The panel discussion wrapped up with an informal poll of whether to support the Canadian efforts and I dare say it was overwhelmingly in favor. I will no doubt be criticized, as I already have been, on the point of having this panel discussion but I am extremely happy that we made the effort to include US beekeepers in this discussion.

Jeremy Olthof