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Last year’s maple syrup shortage was another casualty of recent unpredictable winters, but experts so far see 2024 as a sweet year for the industry.
Joel Vaudeville, communications director for Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, tells Agriculture Dive that Quebec’s 2024 maple production is on track to reach record levels as of this summer. By the spring of 2024, about 239 million pounds of maple syrup had been produced, compared to 124 million pounds produced for the entire year.
This year, producers’ production was higher than expected, thanks to good weather and producers’ ability to adapt well to changes in the growing cycle.
“Maple syrup production is very dependent on the weather,” Vaudeville said. “In years when nature is generous, production can exceed demand, and the industry has difficulty dealing with the surplus.”
Canada’s billion-dollar maple syrup industry accounts for 75% of global production. About 90% is produced in Quebec, where the world’s only strategic maple syrup reserve was established nearly 25 years ago.
But after several warm winters and a surge in pandemic demand, Quebec’s reserves, which exist to stabilize global supply and prices, are at their lowest level in 16 years in 2023. Created to hold 133 million pounds of syrup, the reserves suddenly fell to 6.9 million pounds last year.
Hot temperatures can disrupt the spring freeze-thaw cycle that causes maple sap to flow. Sugaring season typically lasts about four to six weeks, from mid-March to late April, but now it starts earlier and ends earlier, giving farmers less time to collect maple sap, resulting in lower yields. One study found that hot temperatures reduce the sugar content of maple sap, requiring more sap to produce pure maple syrup.
Maple taps haven’t been flowing outside of Canada either. Pure maple production in the United States is down 15% for the 2023 season, with some experts blaming the decline on fluctuating weather conditions, including unseasonably warm temperatures and extreme flooding.
Allison Hope, executive director of the Vermont Maple Sugar Producers Association, said while Quebec reserves have clearly had a “rebound year,” U.S. growers haven’t been so lucky. The devastating summer flooding in Vermont, the nation’s largest maple-producing state, is likely to create difficult conditions for growers.
“We’ve had a bit more warm weather than we would have liked this season, and we had a pretty bad snowstorm in March,” Hope said. “(Trees) don’t like their roots to be too wet, so the flooding may have affected certain areas.”
The arduous road to recovery
While doing 2024 presents an opportunity for recovery, but with production set to expand significantly, challenges are also expected to arise.
To account for future climate change increases, Quebec maple syrup producers have issued 7 million new tabs in 2024, which is expected to represent an increase in annual maple syrup production of 21 million pounds. These 7 million tabs are in addition to another 7 million announced in 2021. Vaudeville said QMSP expects Quebec maple syrup production to increase significantly by 2026.
Unlike other crops, such as cherries, where time is critical to sales, producers can store maple syrup for long periods of time, allowing them to stockpile the market even in difficult years. However, increasing the stockpile of maple syrup does not significantly contribute to the producer’s bottom line.
“The problem for producers is that they are not paid for the maple syrup they put in inventory until it is sold, which puts additional financial strain on them. Add to this the climate change, and production fluctuations are only getting worse,” QMSP President Luc Goulet said in a news release.
Growers have had to adjust as unpredictable weather events threaten to sap maple production, and while some have predicted a “maple apocalypse,” Hope of the Vermont Maple Sugar Association says the industry is still resilient.
Growers are implementing new technologies and innovations to keep maple syrup a staple on the breakfast table. Many of these reformed practices are related to agroforestry and biodiversity conservation. In Vermont, for example, the Bird-Friendly Maple Project certifies qualified maple farms if they can demonstrate that the forests they tap for sugar maple contain a variety of tree species, which improves forest structure and bird foraging and nesting. The program is also expanding into New York, Massachusetts, and Maine.
“If you don’t have forest health, you don’t have biodiversity. If you don’t have biodiversity and forest health, you don’t have long-term industry. All of these things go together, and technology is definitely a piece of that puzzle,” Hope said.
