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 25◦C and leaf temperature is greater
than 28◦C) 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