Entirely market forces. The bees curiously enough were never dying in Australia. Well I mean they weren't really anywhere else but especially not in Australia. The number of hives anywhere is primarily determined by market forces, as is imports/exports. So we import honey here in Australia because it's cheaper and the big grocery store chains (and honey packers even!) just see the dollar signs. I belieeeve a lot of beekeepers are rather unhappy with the biggest packer, Capilano, because they're importing a LOT of chinese honey, and in many cases I believe mixing honey 49% from china 51% from Australia so they can label it as Australian. It's all shenanigans!

Chinese honey imports push our prices down (when he showed that graph someone in the room exclaimed "that exaclty corresponds with the prices we've been getting!"), and while people might not conciously think about it, low prices does push us beekeepers out of investing in hives and pushes some people right out of the business. It's really killing us ):