Apiculture NZ group survives last chance vote, eyeing a 'fresh start' restructure

Apiculture New Zealand lives to fight another day, as hundreds of beekeepers and honey producers vote to retain the troubled industry group.

In Friday's do-or-die vote, 94 percent of members at Apiculture New Zealand's (ApiNZ) annual general meeting chose to retain the organisation that was formed a decade ago, but a structural shake-up was coming.

For now, it will become a new transitional entity called Honey and Bees New Zealand, with an election being planned to replace its entire board of directors.

The history of the organisation stretched back more than a century following restructures over time, as a successor to the National Beekeepers' Association of New Zealand (NBA) among other groups.

But the organisation faced sticky challenges in recent years, including financial viability, persistently low membership numbers, the Auckland yellow-legged hornet incursion, and concerns the commercial honey sector was over-represented.

Chief executive since its beginning Karin Kos said a restructure aimed to address those concerns.

"The whole aim of this and really the request from beekeepers when we talked to them around the country was, we want more unity. We need to have a single voice speaking to government."

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The group had 230 members, but nationally there were more like 7500 registered beekeepers, as of September.

Kos said it was conscious there were many out there whose needs were completely unrepresented.

"This is a fresh start, it's an opportunity for some of the younger leaders to come through, and for those who perhaps haven't felt they've been heard or they haven't been engaged with their industry body," she said.

"This is a chance to do that."

She said leadership worked over the past two years or so to try to revitalise the organisation and future-proof it.

But she said membership fees would have to remain affordable for beekeepers coming from commercial, hobbyist or backyard.

That work was boosted by a $150,000 grant for ApiNZ from the Honey Industry Trust to "regenerate" its leadership.

Once at odds, but now backing the new entity, New Zealand Beekeeping Incorporated's advisor Ian Fletcher said a new constitution was signed and there was a lot of work to do to increase membership.

"It's a good start, but we don't want to ring the church bells and declare victory just yet," he said.

"But it's the beginning of a shared future."

Fletcher said it wanted to go out for election for new board members, with possibly more members than the current seven, as soon as possible.

"It's being done on a shoestring," he said.

Meanwhile, the sector continued to grapple with varroa mite challenges, dropping hive numbers and some market instability following a post-Covid global honey glut.

Key honey exporter Comvita last month raised $25 million in capital as part of a refinancing package, as it marked 50 years in operation.

But the NZX-listed company's capital raise followed a failed bid to privatise the company by Florenz, a subsidiary of investment firm Masthead, to buy the struggling business, that the board voted in favour of in August.

Agricultural leader and former politician Nathan Guy was currently the group's independent chairman.

The board of directors featured commercial beekeeper Murray Elwood, commercial representative Lisa Sheeran, Hive Doctor brand founder Stu Ferguson, hobbyist beekeeper Paul Martin and market representatives Tony Wright of the UMF Honey Association and Sean Goodwin of the Mānuka Collective.

More than 15,500 tonnes of New Zealand honey were produced in the year to June, and by September, registered beehive numbers dropped to 489,000.

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