Bega Cheese joins fight to halt spread of deadly bee parasite

Rather than manually check hives for the devastating varroa mite, Bega Cheese has teamed up with a Melbourne group to automate the process and halt the parasite’s spread.

Vimana Tech co-founders Joel Kuperholz and Vignesh Murugan install a purple hive.

It may sound like all milk and honey, but Bega Cheese is dead serious when it talks about its efforts to halt the spread of varroa mite and keep Australia largely free of the parasite that has crippled bee colonies worldwide.

Australia’s status as the only continent free of varroa mite is under threat after the parasite was detected in a sentinel hive at the Port of Newcastle last week. It has been detected at a further seven properties, sparking a ban on the movement of beehives within NSW.

Bees are being exterminated across exposure sites, with the outbreak potentially costing Australia $70m a year if it is not stopped and threatening to up-end Australia’s $12.2bn horticulture industry, which relies on bees to pollinate crops.

Bega Cheese recognised this threat three years ago as it ramped up its diversification into spreads – including honey – after buying Vegemite from Mondelez for $460m. It followed the launch of a national eradication program after varroa mite was detected on bees at the Port of Townsville in 2016.

But rather than rely on beekeepers checking bees manually – a painstaking process – for varroa mite at sentinel hives at Australian ports, Bega Cheese partnered with Melbourne-based Vimana Tech to develop and design a program to automate the parasite’s detection.

Titled, The Purple Hive Project (purple because of bees’ sensitivity to colour), it uses 360-degree camera technology and artificial intelligence to detect a healthy bee from a bee carrying varroa mite, alerting beekeepers to the parasite’s presence in real time.

The project involves installing a solar-powered box on hives that scans bees as they enter the colony, detecting the parasite via an algorithm.

Bega is now advancing from prototype to commercial production after a successful pilot at Australia’s busiest port, the Port of Melbourne. Other ports have now expressed interest in using Bega Cheese’s technology, including the Port of Townsville where authorities successfully crushed varroa mite outbreaks in 2016, 2019 and 2020.

Adam McNamara, Executive General Manager, Bega Foods said detecting the presence of varroa mite in real time was crucial given about one in every three mouthfuls of food that Australians consume relies on honey bees pollinating crops.

“When we began to develop B honey, we realised the significant threat facing Australia’s honey industry,” Mr McNamara said.

“It was clear to us that we needed to invest in technology and innovation to support the future of our honey bees, Australian beekeepers, and in turn, Australian agriculture.”

The clock is ticking. Beekeepers say once the varroa mite escapes into broader bee populations it is impossible to contain.

Vimana Tech co-founder Joel Kuperholz said the company had met with manufactures to finalise commercial production of the purple hives, which can be fitted to any existing hive.

“The new installation process is to simply lift up your beehive and slot the purple box underneath and place your hive back down as that,” he said.

“It’s minimal disruption and can be done in summer and winter – you don’t want to be impacting your hive too much in winter, moving them around and exposing them to the cold. So by placing it underneath the bee hive, it allows us to it all year around.

“We’ve been meeting manufacturers over the last few months and refining the last elements … and all of our custom circuitry so that we can go to real scale production efficiently.”

Mr Kuperholz said it would be able to launch the technology across sentinel hives in coming months.

Bega Cheese general manager of marketing Matt Gray said the purple hives were apiarist agnostic.

“The priority is to get to high risk areas such as the ports and basically assist in the sentinel hive program which exists around Australia,” he said.

It follows Select Harvests chief executive Paul Thompson warning the varroa mite outbreak and shutdown of NSW beekeeping industry would disrupt pollination at 44 per cent of the company’s almond orchards. Select Harvests rents about 50,000 hives during pollination, which happens in the last three weeks of August.

Barrenjoey analysts Josh Kannourakis and Taylor Guyot said this would have a “commensurate impact on Select Harvests’ revenue and earnings in FY23”.

“Notably, almonds are most impacted due to its proximity to pollination but other fruits and nuts are also impacted including blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, avocados, macadamias.”

Sales of Bega’s B honey will help fund the national launch of The Purple Hive Project. “Without prioritising the health of our honey bees and the ecosystems that rely on them for their wellbeing, honey bees, as well as Australian food security is under threat,” Mr McNamara said.

“By enjoying B honey, you’ll be supporting the Purple Hive Project, and in turn, our bees.”