Scientists believe that more than half the nations in Europe do not have enough honeybees to pollinate crops.
Instead, pollination is being done by so called ‘wild pollinators’ such as bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies.
Honey bees are said by researchers to be responsible for pollinating around one-third of the world's crop production.
But their numbers have been declining in recent years. The fall has been put down to the use of pesticides as well as disease hitting the colonies.
Despite this, honeybee colonies in 41 countries managed to increase by 7% in the five years since 2005.
At the same time, however, the need for pollination grew because of the greater amounts of biofuel crops being planted, such as oilseed rape, sunflowers and soybeans.
Some countries receive subsidies for growing biofuel crops which means more and more are planted.
New research indicates that some 14 million colonies, or around seven billion honeybees, are needed now in Europe.
Most seriously hit with a shortfall is the UK. Joining it are Finland, the Baltic States and Moldova.
Portugal, on the other hand, enjoys one of the highest percentages of honeybees, some 90% of what it needs. It is one of only a few European states in this position.
The EU has encouraged moving away from neonicotinoid pesticides which have been linked to bee deaths, although research on this has been disputed.
Other EU initiatives, such as the renewable fuel directive, could be exacerbating the problem. With its push for renewable, large increases have occurred in planting crops for oil, such as soybeans and rape.
