Drought threatens honey supply in Canada

Many Alberta beekeepers slammed by drought, heat and wildfire smoke this summer are expecting significant declines in production, affecting the largest segment of Canada’s honey industry. Due to what are now three consecutive seasons of lower-than-average production in Alberta and much of Western Canada, there is no honey in reserve and supplies are tight, said director Lorne Prins of the Alberta Beekeepers Commission. “My concern as a local producer is that if the shortage of honey drives up the price of our local product, then the market will have a tendency to replace local honey with foreign honey, and that’s not something we want to see.” Alberta contains more than 40 percent of Canada’s honey industry, producing about 18.6 million kilograms of honey in a good year, said Connie Phillips, executive director of ABC. The province’s production was valued by Statistics Canada at about $64 million in 2018 in terms of gross economic benefits, along with a further $3 million in ...