The Government of Canada’s 2023 Statistical Overview of the Canadian Honey and Bee Industry illustrates the size and impact of bee farming.
“Beekeeping is an important agricultural industry in Canada, producing honey and other hive products, and delivering valuable pollination services to farmers of orchard fruits, many berries, vegetables, forage, and the production of hybrid canola seed,” according to the report.
In 2021, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) estimated that the total annual economic contribution of honeybee pollination was about $3.18 billion. When honeybee pollination of hybrid canola seed is also considered, the total estimated contribution is $7 billion per year.
The number of hives across the country increased in 2023 to 794,341, about 3.6 percent more than the previous year, consistent with the previous four years.
The volume of honey produced in Canada in 2023 increased 23.4 percent from a year earlier to 91.8 million pounds. The total value of the national harvest increased 8.2 percent over the previous year to $277 million, about 22 percent higher than the average of the previous four years.
About 64 percent of Canadian honeybee colonies are in the Prairie provinces – Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta – however the majority (59 percent) of beekeepers with one or more honeybee colonies operate in Ontario and British Columbia.
Ontario and B.C. beekeepers manage 23 percent of colonies in Canada, however, the Prairie beekeepers accounted for 81 percent of national honey production in 2023, totaling 74,222 thousand pounds. Nationwide, 91,807 pounds were produced.
In Ontario in 2023, there were 3,980 beekeepers, or 26.3 percent of the 15,147 national total. In B.C., there were 4,911 beekeepers or 32.4 percent.