2019 ABC Beekeeper Survey

To better understand some of the key challenges and issues that impacted beekeepers in the 2019 crop year, ABC sent a survey to all Eligible Producers to gather data on:

1. The challenges due to the weather in the 2019 crop year, and
2. CFIA inspections with the new SFCRs in place

The survey was emailed to all Eligible Producers in late August/early September 2019. 66 or 37% of all Eligible Producers responded.

From the survey data collected, we can conclude a few things in respect to the 2019 beekeeping season:

1. First, the responses in this survey showed that the majority (66%) of respondents have purchased production insurance in the past. Mainly, these producers have had experiences with either Agri-Stability (45%), Crop Insurance (39%), or both.
2. This survey has also outlined that that only 21% of respondents have production insurance, while 44% have AgriStability for the 2019 season. Based on the comments made by survey respondents, we were able to conclude that honey producers in the province do not believe the insurance programs available to them are worth the premiums, or that they have had a poor experience with the programs in the past.
3. Questions 6 and 7 show us it has been a poor year for the beekeeping industry. One hundred percent of respondents claim that their 2019 honey crop will be below their 3- year production average. Not only this, but 87% of the producers who responded to the survey have experienced crop losses of at least 30%, while 44% of those that responded have crops losses of 50% or greater.

To view the full survey results, please download the full survey results here: Summary of EP survey results 2019.