Regulated honeybee importation keeps diseased hives out, says St. John's farmer

A St. John's farmer says careful importation of honeybees will protect Newfoundland and Labrador's bees from diseases that have wiped out hives in other parts of the world.

Chris Lester of Lester's Farm Market says no one is advocating bringing in, for example, Australian bees in preference to local bees.

"It's just an insurance policy for when things go sideways to avoid the illegal importation of honeybees," said Chris Lester, of Lester's Farm Market.

Newfoundland and Labrador is one of afew places in the world where honeybee hives aren't infected with varroa mites, a parasite that can destroy a hive.

Some beekeepers in this province say Newfoundland and Labrador should have an absolute ban on honeybee importation to keepmites and other diseases out.

Lester disagrees. He says importation from other disease-free areas of the world, such as western Australia, should be maintained as an option when local beekeepers can't meet the demand for new hives.

He argues strictly regulated importation of clean honeybees will prevent illegal importation of hives that may be infected.

"No one can deny the biggest threat to our honeybees is illegal importation," said Lester.

"Back when we imported hives from Australia demand for hives was high, we would have bought up every nuc [starter hive] produced in Newfoundland for two years to fill our need that would have driven somebody to bring them in illegally. There are allegedly clean areas in Nova Scotia. Maybe someone would be reckless and bring some in from there."

More than four years ago, after trying unsuccessfully to buy 25 local hives Lester imported 25 hives from western Australia.

"We went through rigorous testing. They're tested in Australia. They're tested in Vancouver.That year, they were tested every month here in Newfoundland and, as it turns out, those Australian bees came as advertised. They were actually cleaner than Newfoundland bees," he said.

Ifwe have a catastrophic event that drives the demand for hives too high, people will find ways to get bees here, and we need to be able to mitigate the risk of illegal importation.- Chris Lester

Lester does collect and sell honey from the hives but that isn't the primary reason the farm keeps bees. It uses the bees to pollinate crops, something he says isnecessary for about 40 per centof hiscrops to produce fruit.

Lester said production on the farm that produces strawberries, raspberries, squashes, beans, corn and other crops dropped 10 to 15 per cent after Newfoundland and Labrador banned importation of another key pollinator, the bumblebee, more than seven years ago.

"We immediately saw a decline in some of our crops. We knew we had to act. Sowe decided to get into honeybees," said Lester.

He said it worked.

"With the hives, productionjumped back up 15 per cent and when it come to agriculture, the margins are so slim that 10 to 15 per cent extra yield is the difference between paying your bill or not paying your bills," said Lester.

Lester say he would rather use local bees but he says honeybee importation should remain an option in this province in case there's an unforeseendisasterthat wipesout a large number of hives,a position shared by the province's agriculture minister, Gerry Byrne, and the Newfoundland and Labrador BeekeepingAssociation.

"As long as we don't have any major losses we should be able to grow ours. We would always source locally but if we run into two or three years when hives are not available, then what would you do? It's our livelihood that depends on it,the jobs of 50 or 60 people," he said.

"In a perfect world we don't need Australian bees, but it's just if we have a catastrophic event that drives the demand for hives too high, people will find ways to get bees here, and we need to be able to mitigate the risk of illegal importation."

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