Honeybee Valuation 10 Years After Colony Collapse Disorder

Using the bioeconomic method to calculate honeybee value, I find that honeybees in the US in 2015 are worth $26.7 billion. This is greater than all past values done using the bioeconomic method, but this increase is due to the $5 billion increase in almond value as well as the 7 crops that this paper uses that the others did not. Excluding these, the 2015 value is $3.78 billion less than the 1996-98 value using the bioeconomic method. This decrease is not due to the dramatic loss of honeybees over the past 15 years as a result of Colony Collapse Disorder, but rather due to the substantial increase in fruit and vegetable imports over the last two decades. It is possible that outsourcing US pollination needs to foreign countries is accommodating for the effects honeybee loss would have on US agriculture.