Report on Meetings with PEI Beekeepers and PEI Wild Blueberry Growers’ Association Information Day

Thursday, 23 January 2025

The Atlantic Tech Transfer Team for Apiculture has recently organized/attended a couple of industry events on Prince Edward Island. Last Friday, January 17th, the team held a drop-in clinic for PEI beekeepers and other interested industry representatives/partners, which provided an opportunity for PEI beekeepers to discuss a range of important topics with our team. Then, on January 22nd, ATTTA attended the PEI Wild Blueberry Growers’ Association information day, which provided a series of industry updates regarding the wild blueberry industry. To learn more about these industry events read this week’s blog.

Report on Meetings with PEI Beekeepers and PEI Wild Blueberry Growers’ Association Information Day

The ATTTA team recently held a drop-in clinic for PEI beekeepers at the Charlottetown Library Learning Centre. The clinic took place on January 17th, and it provided an opportunity for PEI beekeepers to come meet with ATTTA, ask our team questions about Maritime beekeeping, discuss future learning and research opportunities, and to learn more about the ATTTA program including upcoming training/research the team is providing for the industry. A wide range of important discussions took place between ATTTA, the PEI provincial apiarist, and the group of PEI beekeepers who stopped by the clinic. The group covered topics such as winter protection of hives, beekeeping equipment availability in PEI, Maritime queen production, overwintering colonies, climate impacts to beekeeping, pollination supply/demand, 2024 honey production, protecting pollinators from agri-chemicals and upcoming industry events. We would like to thank all beekeepers and industry representatives who participated in this event.

On January 22nd, ATTTA attended the PEI Wild Blueberry Growers’ Association (PEIWBGA) information day in Charlottetown, PE. The event was well attended by association members and industry representatives, with over 50 in-person attendees. The event started with a welcome from the association president, Benny Nabuurs. Following that, the provincial apiarist, Cameron Menzies, provided an extension report on the wild blueberry industry. The 2024 wild blueberry yield was slightly below average at 20.5M lbs. harvested across the island, with a 5-year average of 21.3M lbs. In 2024, there was 6250 acres harvested in PEI, with an average harvest of 2880 lbs. of wild blueberries per acre. There was an estimated 9800 hives used for pollination services on PEI this past season (both PEI colonies and Canadian imported colonies), which provided an average stocking density of 1.5 hives per acre. The average hive rental price on the island was $226 this past season, which is comparable to 2023 ($225).

PEI provincial apiarist, Cameron Menzies, presenting at the PEI Wild Blueberry Growers’ Association information day in Charlottetown, PE (2025).

Menzies discussed various contributing factors to what makes a good or bad year for wild blueberry production, including crop protection during the winter months (snow cover), investment in land clearing, pollination supply, pollination weather, and the amount of mature wild blueberry fields. Overall, 2024 was a good year for pollination. However, the industry did experience inconsistent yields across the province. Weather may be a significant contributing factor to the below average yield in 2024. This is partly due to weather experienced during the 2023 growing season, which included record high temperatures during the month of July, and above average precipitation throughout the 2023 growing season. Research indicates that extended periods of high temperatures (air temperature is greater than 25C and leaf temperature is greater than 28C) can impact wild blueberry plant development. Increased amounts of rainfall lead to increased disease pressure, and disrupts plant phenology and development (delayed tip dieback and lack of fruit bud set). The mentioned weather conditions can impact sprout year fields, which directly affects the following year’s crop. Additionally, during the winter of 2023/2024 the amount of snow cover to protect wild blueberries was below average, which could have caused damage to plants and impacted the 2024 crop.

Menzies also discussed pest monitoring occurring on the island, including blueberry maggot, spotted wing drosophila, and cranberry fruit worm. Finally, the presentation concluded with a summary of various funding programs available to PEI growers, including the Agriculture Resiliency program, Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) program, Agriculture Stewardship program, and the Pollination Expansion sub-program.

Next, Ahmad Khan (Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture) discussed the PEI wild blueberry cost of production study. The study has incorporated both variable and fixed costs associated with wild blueberry production, and can be used to determine the cost of production for low to high yielding fields. The model developed from this study is expected to be available to PEI growers at some point during 2025.

Gilbert Lavoie (Forest Lavoie Conseil) provided a wild blueberry market report. Wild blueberry production was below average in 2024 for North America (286M lbs. versus 301M lbs. ten-year average). Wild blueberry inventories are down in 2024 and are decreasing at a good pace. Lavoie also highlighted current importing and exporting quantities of wild blueberries between the United States and Canada. In 2024, Canada exported 23M lbs. of frozen product to the US, and an additional 11M lbs. of fresh product to US processing plans. In comparison, the US exported 13M. lbs. of frozen product to Canada, and an additional 20M lbs. of fresh product to Canadian processing plans.

Next, the team from Stiletto (Jenna Evans, Cailee Mousek, and Rosalynd Mitchell) presented on their PEI wild blueberry industry economic impact study. The full report will be provided to the PEIWBGA, and it will include a summary of various direct impacts to the industry (ex. on farm jobs), indirect impacts (ex. jobs in wild blueberry supply chain), induced impacts (ex. distribution of worker income), spin-off impacts (ex. events/activities outside of production and processing), and future impacts. The Stiletto team also had attendees participate in an activity where they were asked to identify the biggest challenges and opportunities of the wild blueberry industry.

The final presentation of the day was from Rob Dover (Fresh Media) who discussed the PEI wild blueberry brand awareness plan. Dover explained how PEI wild blueberries can better promote their product, including the development of a brand, the use of social media, promoting value added products, partnerships with other associations and reputable health organizations, community involvement and signature wild blueberry events.

Thank you to all members of PEIWBGA who helped organize this great event. Also, thank you to all those who work to support the wild blueberry industry of PEI.

Connecting with ATTTA Specialists

If you’d like to connect with ATTTA specialists or learn more about our program, you can:

visit our website at https://www.perennia.ca/portfolio-items/honey-bees/

Email attta@perennia.ca