Road to recovery: Can global food production bounce back from record honeybee losses?

One of the most concerning aspects of the nation’s catastrophic 1.1 million honeybee colony loss — representing as much as 70% of U.S. hives and an estimated $634.7 million in economic impact — is that no one saw it coming, says Omer Davidi, CEO and co-founder of BeeHero.

A global data-driven precision pollination company, BeeHero manufactures low-cost sensors that monitor data from inside the beehive and then translates that data into actionable insights for the beekeeper.

With an estimated hive shortage of 300,000 to 500,000 this year, the ripple effects not only endanger this year’s crop yields, but also future seasons, with wide-reaching impacts for the beekeeping, agriculture and food industries, says Davidi.

He says while recent annual bee mortality rates were already a concern at 40% to 45%, this year’s 60% to 70% loss is especially troublesome.

How will these losses impact the global food supply?

“Looking at global food production, we definitely expect to see a drop in productivity,” Davidi says. “And when we talk about bees and pollination, which is an essential component for roughly 70% or 75% of agricultural crops … we expect [to see a] drop in production of almonds and avocados and berries — and pretty much everything you can think of — apples and cherries and so on.

“Putting aside the beekeepers that will run out of business because of it, the ability to overcome the high mortality rates in one year is highly likely impossible, and that will probably affect us for the coming two or three years,” Davidi continued. “Now the bigger question is: What’s going to happen next year? Or what’s going to happen two years from now?”

And restoring colonies takes time — and more bees.

“First of all, we lose some beekeepers that are keeping bees to support global food production. That’s one aspect,” Davidi says of this year’s hive losses. “The second thing is the fact that in order to revive the colonies, you need to split hives. You cannot just buy hives or buy bees out of nowhere. You need to split hives. You need to get your existing hives to expand to a point that you can make two hives out of one hive and then keep pushing it.”

Why were beekeepers caught off guard by catastrophic losses?

“Something we need to understand as we look at the industry is that most beekeepers during the wintertime don’t necessarily know what’s happening inside their hives. You don’t open hives during wintertime,” says Davidi, as beekeepers don’t want to disturb the bees during hibernation.

That’s where BeeHero’s technology can help, he says. Using a simple sensor placed inside the hive, BeeHero monitors the temperature, humidity, acoustics, light and vibration inside the hive — collecting some 25 million data points a day on some 300,000 hives around the world. The data points are used to create an algorithm that can detect problems and changes inside the hive, such as evidence of queen failure.

“We need to have more visibility [into the hive], so we don’t wake up one day realizing 70% of bee colonies died,” says Davidi. “We need to do it early on so we can strategize how to deal with it. We can leverage the fact that there’s Southern Hemisphere and Northern Hemisphere, and we might be able to send bees from different places in the world to support the pollination needs.”

Davidi says when beekeepers, like those who use BeeHero’s sensors, have visibility into what’s happening inside the hives, they can address problems early on, which helps stabilize mortality.

Founded in 2017, BeeHero says it has lowered bee mortality by nearly half and increased efficiency by more than 30% in hives using its Pollination Insight Platform. While beekeepers that use BeeHero technology don’t see zero mortality, Davidi says they typically see a mortality rate between 20% to 25%.

Though this year saw record honeybee colony losses in the U.S., Davidi says it’s not only a problem here.

“It’s a global problem,” he says, pointing to a region in France that suffered an 80% mortality rate two years ago.

Governmental support

Davidi says BeeHero has been approached by governments and research facilities seeking to learn how agriculture can leverage the company’s technology and knowledge to help address this global problem.

“We need to be able to establish plans to support beekeepers to overcome high mortality rates — whether it’s from subsidiaries or financing solutions — we need to help them overcome cash flow and other things, so they don’t run out of business,” he says. “But all those things cannot be — especially if it’s at the governmental level — cannot be done immediately. It takes a lot of time, and that’s where early on visibility is critical.”

Davidi says BeeHero’s goal is to get more sensors into more hives, whether it’s using its own technology or someone else’s.

“We need eyes in those hives, and those eyes need support at the government level to help address [pollinator health] in a more strategic way,” he says. “I don’t expect to see a full extinction of bees — we don’t want to be overly dramatic — but I do think that we need to establish more sustainable programs for pollination and beekeeping.

“We have the technology available, and we are thinking of ways to bring people that care about what’s happening — not just from a food production perspective, but also from environmental perspective — and basically walk together with the governmental organizations, with the scientific efforts, to overcome this challenge,” he says.