Beekeeping in Australia

Beekeeping in Australia is a commercial industry with around 25,000 registered beekeepers owning over 670,000 hives in 2018. Most are found in the eastern states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania as well as the south-west of Western Australia.

Beekeepers or apiarists, and their bees, produce honey, beeswax, package bees, queen bee pollen and royal jelly. They also provide pollination services for fruit trees and a variety of ground crops. These pollination services to agriculture are valued at between A$8–19 billion a year. The approximately 30,000 tonnes (66 million pounds) of honey produced each year is worth around $90 million.

Australia is the fourth largest honey exporting nation after China, Argentina and Mexico. The high quality and unique flavours of Australian honey allows exporters to charge a premium price.

There are also beekeeping hobbyists in Australia who produce honey for home consumption or to be made into products, such as mead. A few are involved in domesticating native bees.

Each of the states and the territories have the responsibility to guide and police the beekeeping industry (including amateur beekeepers) within their own borders. However, the Federal Government has overall jurisdiction over biosecurity and it uses this power to enforce by law some beekeeping requirements under the Biosecurity Code of Practice.