Bushfires devastate Tasmanian leatherwood honey production, prices set to rise

04 February 2019

Published by https://www.abc.net.au/


AUSTRALIA – The price of Tasmanian honey is expected to soar this year after dry conditions and fires across the state have conspired to deliver the industry’s worst season in 35 years.

Hives have been wiped out along with large amounts of valuable leatherwood trees that are expected to take more than 100 years to recover.

About 70 per cent of the state’s honey is produced using leatherwood, a rainforest tree that flowers annually over summer.

Tasmanian Beekeepers Association vice president Peter Norris said it had already been a challenging season with the trees struggling to flower.

Combined with the fires which have ravaged wilderness areas, Mr Norris said it was a perfect storm for the industry.

“It’s just a disaster. We haven’t got a lot of leatherwood anyway,” he said.

“Leatherwood doesn’t handle fire, it takes a couple of hundred years to come back.”

He said the impacts would affect generations of honey producers.

“We’re never going to see it recover — once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

Production to plummet

The honey produced in Tasmania is worth more than $10 million at bulk price, and much more at retail prices.

Mr Norris said production would be down 75 per cent, making it the worst season in 35 years.

“Leatherwood honey will be scarce for years to come,” he said.

The tree is crucial to the industry because it flowers annually, unlike other varieties of linked to honey production.

“Prices are bound to go up this year — by a lot.”

Leatherwood has been lost in the Florentine Valley from the Gell River Fire and on the West Coast with the Zeehan fire, he said.

“That’s a shame because it’s an excellent leatherwood resource [in Zeehan].”

Hives lost in fires

Mr Norris keeps 150 hives in the Florentine Valley and had expected to lose them all when the Gell River Fire jumped the Gordon River and ran into the Needles.

He went to check on his hives over the weekend and was surprised to hear from Parks and Wildlife that they were intact.

“We had 150 hives at risk there and I think they are OK; they may have been waterbombed,” he said.

“It’s pretty devastating out there. It’s terrible where it’s crossed the Gordon River Road and has gone up into the Needles.”

He said other beekeepers had lost hives on Scotts Peak Road in the Southwest and in the Tahune area where the Riveaux Road fire burned out of control.

Access has been difficult so many keepers don’t know how their hives have fared.

“Hives I can replace, leatherwood I can’t replace,” Mr Norrise said.

The bushfires, some of which have been going since before Christmas, have burned more than 190,000 hectares.

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