The issue for me is not a gripe with commercial beekeepers as we all have a lot to learn from best practice.
You only have to read beekeeping forum to see that the bulk of the useful information on there comes from Murray Mcg, Hivemaker, Dan B and and a few other commercial beekeepers.
But irrespective of anything else, the risks associated with imports are a threat to all of us, to local breeding programmes and more worryingly the disease risk.
And the disease risk is not uniform.
Importing packages or nucs is a far bigger risk than importing a queen with a couple of attendants.
Importing from outside the EU is a bigger risk than from within the EU and I don't buy the argument about the tight phytosanitary controls in a place like NZ.
Bees are tested for nosema, trachael mite, foulbroods, but not for a range of viruses some of which may be unknown. (due credit to Donald Rumsfeld and his unknown unknowns)
What about Jerry Bromenshenk's work where he has linked an irridovirus to CCD? He is due to publish an update on that work shortly.
He may or may not be correct with that hypothesis but are we sure that bees coming in here are free from a virus like that which we likely don't have yet in the UK or Ireland.
Nearly every bee problem we have was brought in at some point by a beekeeper and these problems are not trivial. varroa first appeared in Ireland in 1998 on the Sligo Leitrim border, ie not at a port, so the mites were most likely driven here when someone brought in a few colonies in the back of a van. And every beekeeper in the country has had to radically change their beekeeping practice because of the behaviour of one individual.

Anyway, I cannot see how it is a viable business model if commercial beekeepers have to constantly restock with packages from outside the UK.
Losses vary from year to year, and this winter is particularly bad, but surely it is possible to manage commercial stocks in a way that is sustainable numbers wise without constant imports. It's not as if the imports are free.