It’s no secret that the agriculture industry is full of a lot of hard work.
Our state’s producers, farm workers, and processors work hard year-round, day after day, to supply the food, fuel, and fiber that make up Wisconsin’s $104.8 billion agriculture industry. But there’s another category of small-but-mighty workers that also help keep our agriculture industry thriving: the honey bee.
In 2022, Wisconsin ranked 11th in the nation for the production of honey. With approximately 53,000 honey producing hives in the state, we produced nearly 3 million pounds of this sticky-sweet substance, making Wisconsin honey an $8.86 million industry. At DATCP, we are proud to work with beekeepers, and with the Wisconsin Honey Producers Association, to help protect our state’s bees and market the delicious Wisconsin commodity.
But honey bees do much more than just produce a delicious product that we love to eat. They’re pollinators that play an essential role in the growth of various produce crops in the state. Many of our favorite foods are partially or fully reliant on insect pollinators to produce fruit, including cranberries, apples, strawberries, and tomatoes, among others. Other pollinators, like flower flies, butterflies, and hummingbirds, also offer important contributions to crop and wildflower pollination.
