A $610,000 state government funding injection into Capilano Honey’s Maryborough facility has been hailed as good news for central Victorian beekeepers.
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Minister for Regional Development Jaala Pulford announced the funding in Maryborough on Friday, promising an additional 25 jobs.
Victorian Apiarists Association Bendigo branch president and part-time Junortoun beekeeper Don McArthur said the funding would make life easier for the region’s honey producers.
“The advantage to beekeepers in Victoria is the fact they don’t have to cart their honey to Queensland,” he said.
“Maryborough is virtually in the centre of Victoria and it’s easy for local beekeepers to supply them so as far as the beekeepers are concerned it’s a lot more convenient.”
Mr McArthur said expanding the Maryborough site to incorporate some of Capilano’s business operations from Western Australia and Queensland would also benefit local beekeepers.
“It sounds like Capilano are going to relocate their administration back to Maryborough, which used to be the case, and that’s going to be probably a little bit more convenient for beekeepers who need to contact [them] at a face-to-face meeting,” he said.
Ms Pulford said the upgrade would create jobs in honey packaging, warehousing, maintenance, and beekeeping.
“This project is a great example of our Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund in action – supporting projects that create jobs and strengthen regional Victoria,” she said.
Meanwhile Mr McArthur weighed in to the controversy surrounding research which showed the average Australian honey had a four times higher concentration of toxic alkaloids derived from the Paterson’s Curse plant than honey from other countries.
Mr McArthur said most Australian honeybees had no interaction with the poisonous plant, so contamination would be minimal.
“One of the problems there is that their assumptions of what is toxic and what is not toxic is not accurate,” he said.
“There’s never been a recorded case anywhere in the world where anyone has showed any symptoms of toxicity to the alkaloid.”
He said most honey bees based in Bendigo would likely have never seen Paterson’s Curse, offsetting any potential contamination from other sources.
“Patterson’s Curse is gradually disappearing, there’s only relatively small patches of it around southern NSW,” he said.
“It virtually makes it minuscule by the time it gets diluted with, say, my honey.”