Apiculture (NAICS 2022 · 11291) — U.S. Industry-Group Primer

1. Overview

NAICS 11291, "Apiculture," is the five-digit level of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS — the standard the U.S. government uses to group businesses) that covers commercial beekeeping: raising honey bee colonies to sell honey and other hive products, and renting those colonies to farmers for crop pollination.

This level contains exactly one six-digit industry — 112910, Apiculture — so 11291 and 112910 are effectively the same thing. Everything true of the child is true of this level. This page is deliberately short: it explains why the two levels coincide, gives this level's own top-line figures, and points to the 112910 primer for full detail on structure, economics, regulation, the investable universe and risks.

For most investors this is a private, operating-business industry, not a stock. There is no meaningful U.S.-listed pure play; ownership is dominated by family farms, migratory operators and cooperatives, and capital gets in by buying or financing an operation, backing a honey brand or equipment supplier, or venture-funding bee-health technology. Public-market exposure is indirect. See 112910 for the detail.

2. What's inside — and why the level equals its one child

NAICS builds up in nested layers: sector (2-digit) → subsector (3-digit) → industry group (4-digit) → NAICS industry (5-digit) → national industry (6-digit). At each split, a parent code is just the sum of its children.

NAICS industry 11291 has a single child:

When a five-digit code has one six-digit child, the two are identical in scope: no sibling industries share the parent, so there is nothing to aggregate. 11291's boundaries are exactly 112910's boundaries — establishments primarily raising bees to produce honey, beeswax, royal jelly, propolis, pollen and venom; selling queens, package bees and nucleus ("nuc") colonies; and providing pollination services, including renting hives to growers.[10] Honey packing and bottling by firms that don't keep bees, honey wholesaling and retailing, and crop farms that hire bees fall under other NAICS codes and are the industry's suppliers and customers, not part of it.[10] The 112910 primer covers those boundaries in full.

3. How big it is (this level's figures)

We hold no ingested federal business statistics keyed to NAICS 11291 itself — the ground-truth file for this node is empty. Because 11291 equals 112910, the figures below are the child industry's, drawn from cited USDA sources and labeled as such. They apply unchanged to this level.

Two structural cautions carry up from the child:

• Standard Census business series (County Business Patterns, the Economic Census, Statistics of U.S. Businesses, Nonemployer Statistics) exclude crop and animal production, so they badly undercount apiculture. Most operators are non-employer farm proprietors captured in U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data instead — the meaningful numbers are agricultural, not the Census business universe.
• Ownership is dominated by small, family and hobby operators, so any employer-based count understates the true population of beekeepers.

USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) tracks operations with five or more colonies in its annual Honey report:[1]

By dollar sales this is one of the smallest line items in U.S. agriculture, but it sits underneath a far larger economy — the almonds, berries, tree fruit, seed and vegetable crops that need insect pollination, worth tens of billions of dollars a year.[2][4] A broader every-five-years benchmark, the 2022 Census of Agriculture, counted roughly 74,000 farms with bee colonies holding a record ~3.8 million colonies, a jump driven mostly by new hobby and sideline keepers.[7] The only business-registry figure we hold at the child level is the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) size standard of $3.25 million in average annual receipts[9] — a program-eligibility threshold nearly every operation clears, which itself signals how small the typical business is.

4. Investable universe (where value concentrates)

Because this level equals its one child, there is no cross-child comparison to make — all value sits in 112910. There is no U.S.-listed pure-play apiculture company. The closest listed exposures are foreign or adjacent: Comvita (New Zealand Exchange: CVT — Mānuka honey, the most direct listed honey name),[24] Floridienne/Biobest (Euronext Brussels: FLOB — bumblebee pollination),[25] crop-protection majors Corteva (NYSE: CTVA) and FMC (NYSE: FMC),[26] and the speculative micro-cap Bee Vectoring Technologies (CSE: BEE / OTCQB: BEVVF).[23] The largest and cleanest public proxy is the downstream crop and food companies whose output depends on rented bees.

Value concentrates in private hands: large migratory operators (e.g., Adee Honey Farms, ~80,000 colonies),[18] roll-ups (Sweet Harvest Foods / Nate's Hives, 120,000+ colonies via acquisitions),[20] vertically integrated ag groups (The Wonderful Company),[21] the beekeeper-owned cooperative Sioux Honey (Sue Bee),[19] bee-health technology (Beewise),[22] and equipment suppliers (Dadant, Mann Lake).[25] Full detail is in the 112910 primer.

5. How the money works

A commercial beekeeper runs two revenue engines from the same colonies, plus a smaller third:

• Pollination rentals — the economic anchor. Growers pay a per-colony fee to place hives during bloom. Almonds dominate: in USDA's 2024 Cost of Pollination survey the almond fee averaged about $181 per colony versus about $66 for other crops, and almond pollination alone generated an estimated $325.8 million — about 81% of U.S. pollination receipts.[2]
• Honey, sold mostly in bulk to packers; unit economics turn on yield per colony × price per pound.[1]
• Live bees and genetics (queens, packages, nucs) — about $48 million industry-wide in 2025.[1]

The defining cost is colony replacement: beekeepers lose a large share of colonies each year and must rebuild, a recurring capital drain layered on top of feed, varroa-mite treatments, seasonal labor and long-haul trucking.[1] Margins are thin, and the gap between a good year and a bad one is usually decided by colony survival, not price. Use apiculture-appropriate economics here — this is a seasonal, biological, contract-driven farm business, not a rate-base utility, a REIT or a mine.

6. Demand drivers

• Pollination-dependent acreage, especially California almonds — USDA counts more than 100 pollinator-reliant crops, and about a third of the U.S. diet depends on insect-pollinated plants.[5][3]
• Colony scarcity — high winter losses tighten colony supply and support rental fees.
• Honey consumption vs. imports — imports have exceeded domestic production every year since 2005 and supplied about 74% of U.S. honey in 2021, so the domestic honey price is set largely by world supply and trade policy.[6]
• Bee-health demand — varroa control, resistant genetics, queen quality and hive monitoring are a growing market of their own.

7. Regulation

• Trade/antidumping — the June 2022 Commerce Department antidumping orders on raw honey from Argentina, Brazil, India and Vietnam are the industry's most consequential rule, because imports set the domestic price.[11]
• Pesticides — EPA regulates bee-relevant pesticides (notably neonicotinoids) and registers varroa treatments under FIFRA.[13]
• Labeling/food safety — FDA & USDA govern honey labeling, adulteration testing, and the National Honey Board check-off.[14][15]
• Bee movement — APHIS bans whole-colony imports and restricts queen/package imports.[16]
• State apiary programs run inspection, registration and interstate disease control.

8. Consolidation

Consolidation is real and top-heavy: a small share of operators controls most hives (one widely cited estimate puts ~2% of beekeepers over ~88% of hives),[8] and it is now moving through acquisitions (Sweet Harvest Foods' five-buyout roll-up)[20] and backward integration (The Wonderful Company buying into beekeeping to secure almond pollination).[21] Marketing is consolidated on the packer/co-op side (Sioux Honey aggregates 200-plus family beekeepers).[19] The newest vector is technology — sensor-equipped and robotic hives aimed at the colony-loss cost that dominates the economics. Regional forage and family ownership should keep a large private middle market intact.

9. Risks

• Colony mortality — the defining risk. A national survey estimated 55.6% of managed U.S. colonies died between April 2024 and April 2025 — the worst on record — with varroa mites and the viruses they spread the prime suspect.[26]
• Import price pressure — roughly three-quarters imported supply can cap the domestic price regardless of U.S. output.[6]
• Almond concentration — heavy dependence on one crop in one state.
• Input, labor and liquidity stress from feed, treatments, fuel and seasonal borrowing.
• Regulatory/trade reversal if antidumping orders weaken or pesticide rules shift.
• Climate and forage loss, and longer-term substitution (bumblebees, native pollinators, greenhouse tech).

10. How to invest and outlook

There is no clean listed apiculture stock. Public-market routes are indirect — small foreign/adjacent names (Comvita, Floridienne, Corteva, FMC, Bee Vectoring Technologies) and, more cleanly, the downstream crop and food companies that depend on rented bees.[24][25][26][23] The genuinely investable routes are private: owning or financing a commercial beekeeping operation, backing regional roll-ups, investing in queen genetics and replacement-bee supply, funding varroa control and hive-monitoring technology, or acquiring honey brands and traceability platforms.[22] Diligence centers on one number — the operator's overwinter survival rate — because colony replacement, not honey price, usually decides the year.

The tension to watch is scarcity versus mortality: catastrophic 2024–25 losses[26] tighten colony supply for the 2026 almond bloom (supportive of pollination fees for survivors) even as they raise everyone's replacement costs. Demand for the pollination service is structurally secure — the high-value crops are not going away. For the complete analysis, see the 112910 (Apiculture) primer, which this level mirrors exactly.

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Sources

1. USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Honey (released March 13, 2026) — production, colonies, yield, price, value; pollination and other income; 2024 revised and 2025 figures. https://esmis.nal.usda.gov/sites/default/release-files/795818/hony0326.pdf
2. USDA Economic Research Service (ERS), Pollination Services Valued at $400 Million on 1.7 Million Acres / Cost of Pollination (2024) — almond fee ~$181/colony; $325.8M and ~81% share. https://ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/112782
3. National Honey Board, Honey Industry Facts — pollination value; ~one-third of diet. https://honey.com/newsroom/presskit/honey-industry-facts
4. USDA ERS, Honey Bees on the Move (2021); ERS pollinator-value estimates (>$18B added crop revenue). https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/101475
5. USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), National Honey Bee Surveys — >100 pollinator-dependent crops. https://direct.aphis.usda.gov/plant-pests-diseases/honey-bee-surveys
6. USDA ERS, Honey Imports Continue to Rise — imports > domestic since 2005; ~74% of supply (2021). https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/104135
7. USDA NASS, 2022 Census of Agriculture honey bee colonies (~74,000 farms; record ~3.8M colonies). https://beeculture.com/usda-nass-2022-ag-census-sparks-debate-over-honey-bee-population-reporting/
8. Chloe Sorvino, "Inside A Billionaire Bee Colony," Forbes (2023) — ~2% of beekeepers manage ~88% of hives. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2023/05/21/inside-a-billionaire-bee-colony/
9. U.S. Small Business Administration, Table of Size Standards (effective March 17, 2023) — NAICS 112910, $3.25 million. https://www.sba.gov/document/support-table-size-standards
10. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 NAICS — 112910 Apiculture (definition and scope). https://www.census.gov/naics/?details=112910&year=2022
11. Federal Register, Raw Honey From Argentina, Brazil, India, and Vietnam: Antidumping Duty Orders (June 10, 2022). https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/06/10/2022-12498/raw-honey-from-argentina-brazil-india-and-the-socialist-republic-of-vietnam-antidumping-duty-orders
12. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Pesticide Products Approved for Use Against Varroa Mites (2025) and pollinator protection under FIFRA. https://www.epa.gov/pollinator-protection/epa-registered-pesticide-products-approved-use-against-varroa-mites-bee-hives
13. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Guidance for Industry: Proper Labeling of Honey and Honey Products (2018). https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/guidance-industry-proper-labeling-honey-and-honey-products
14. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service / Federal Register, Honey Packers and Importers; Increased Assessment Rate. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/03/09/2026-04567/honey-packers-and-importers-increased-assessment-rate
15. USDA APHIS, Importing or Transiting Live Bees (2025). https://www.aphis.usda.gov/print/pdf/node/3356
16. Adee Honey Farms, Our Story; Agweek/Forbes coverage — largest U.S. beekeeper. https://www.adeehoneyfarms.com/pages/our-story
17. Sioux Honey Association Cooperative, Our Story / FAQs — beekeeper-owned co-op, 200+ members. https://siouxhoney.com/our-honey/faqs/
18. Sweet Harvest Foods, Nate's Hives Becomes America's Largest Beekeeper with 120,000 Colonies (2025). https://sweetharvestfoods.com/nates-hives-becomes-largest-us-beekeeper-with-120000-colonies/
19. The Wonderful Company, Paramount Farming Enters Beekeeping Industry with Acquisition of Headwaters Farm (2015). https://www.wonderful.com/press/paramount-farming-enters-beekeeping-industry--1727/
20. The Robot Report, "Beewise brings in $50M to expand access to its robotic BeeHome" (2025). https://www.therobotreport.com/beewise-brings-50m-expands-access-robotic-beehome/
21. Bee Vectoring Technologies — company overview (CSE: BEE / OTCQB: BEVVF). https://www.beevt.com/about/bee-vectoring-technology
22. Comvita Limited (NZX: CVT), Investor Centre. https://comvita.co.nz/pages/investor-centre
23. Biobest / Floridienne (Euronext Brussels: FLOB), Investor Relations. https://www.biobest.com/en-ES/investor-relations
24. Corteva, 2025 Form 10-K (NYSE: CTVA); FMC Corporation, About FMC (NYSE: FMC). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1755672/000175567226000004/ctva-20251231.htm
25. Dadant & Sons, About Us; Mann Lake, About Us — hive-equipment suppliers. https://www.dadant.com/catalog/about-us
26. Auburn University College of Agriculture, "U.S. Beekeeping Survey reveals highest honey bee colony losses during 2024–2025" (2025); Project Apis m., 2025 Colony Loss Information. https://agriculture.auburn.edu/feature/u-s-beekeeping-survey-reveals-highest-honeybee-colony-losses-during-2024-2025/