{"id":88397,"date":"2021-12-01T14:33:04","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T19:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/?p=88397"},"modified":"2021-12-02T09:46:29","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T14:46:29","slug":"why-canada-is-unlocking-its-vault-of-maple-syrup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/canada\/why-canada-is-unlocking-its-vault-of-maple-syrup\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Canada is unlocking its vault of maple syrup"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Why
Quebec produces about 73 per cent of the world’s maple syrup. In order to help prevent a shortage amid increased demand, the Quebec Maple Syrup Producers (QMSP), has said it will release about 22.7 million kilograms of the so-called ‘liquid gold’ from its strategic reserve into the market. (Rebecca Ugolini\/CBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Canada’s maple syrup industry has become an international focus in recent days, with headlines shouting that\u00a0the country\u00a0has been forced to tap into its strategic reserve\u00a0to make up for shortages.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Quebec produces about 73 per cent of the all maple syrup in the world. And the Quebec Maple Syrup Producers (QMSP), an organization that governs the province’s\u00a0maple syrup producers, has said it\u00a0will\u00a0release\u00a0about\u00a022.7\u00a0million kilograms\u00a0of maple syrup from its strategic reserve\u00a0into the market by February.<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

For some, the headlines may have been an eye-opener that Canada even has a stockpile of maple syrup. CBC\u00a0Explains the purpose of this reserve,\u00a0why it had to be tapped into, and explores whether there was ever a shortage of maple syrup.<\/p>\n

What is the strategic reserve?<\/h2>\n

Quebec’s maple syrup industry is subject to a supply-management system, meaning it\u00a0employs a quota\u00a0system run by the QMSP\u00a0which dictates market volume. The QMSP also\u00a0controls\u00a0the Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve, which can hold more than 45\u00a0million kilograms\u00a0of maple syrup.<\/p>\n

The reserve\u00a0was created in 2000 to keep syrup in stock and\u00a0ensure a constant supply for national and international markets, regardless of the size of the harvest,\u00a0H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Normandin, a spokesperson\u00a0for QMSP told CBC’s As It Happens.<\/p>\n

One site, the Laurierville Plant and Warehouse, in the Centre-du-Qu\u00e9bec region, covers an area of 24,805 square metres \u2013 the equivalent of five football fields. That site alone can store 25 million kilograms of maple syrup, or 94,000 barrels.<\/p>\n

When\u00a0properly stored in barrels, maple\u00a0syrup can last for many years, said\u00a0Michael Farrell, the former director of\u00a0Cornell University’s Uihlein Forest, a maple syrup research and extension field station in Lake Placid, N.Y.<\/p>\n

In years when the yield is good, and more syrup is produced than needed, the extra can be\u00a0sold to the QMSP\u00a0and stored “so that when there’s bad years, you have enough to keep people stocked up with syrup on their pancakes,” Farrell said.<\/p>\n

“<\/strong>Without this in reserve [this year], there would be much less syrup up on store shelves, and the price would be much higher.”<\/p>\n

Why did they have to tap into the reserve this year?<\/h2>\n

In 2021, there was about 60 million kilograms of maple syrup produced, an average amount when compared to past years but down 18 million kilograms compared to 2020.<\/p>\n

\"Maple
In this photo, a harvester taps a maple tree. Quebec’s maple syrup industry is subject to a supply management system, meaning it employs a quota system run by the QMSP which dictates market volume. (CBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“It was an\u00a0average season, not bad, but not as\u00a0big as the\u00a0two last seasons\u00a0\u2014\u00a02019 and 2020 were just amazing, wonderful\u00a0years of production,”\u00a0Normandin said.<\/p>\n

However, worldwide demand has increased by\u00a0more than 20 per cent \u2014 a spike industry experts\u00a0believe\u00a0was\u00a0partly fuelled by more people cooking at home during the pandemic\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and that\u00a0has strained the supply.<\/p>\n

How did the weather affect the yield?<\/h2>\n

Not every year is a perfect year for every agricultural harvest. And\u00a0this was one of those years which was not ideal in terms of maple syrup production, said\u00a0Abby van den Berg, a research associate\u00a0professor at the\u00a0University of Vermont’s Proctor Maple Research Center in Underhill, Vt.<\/p>\n

Many places didn’t have good weather for sap flow until later in the production season, she said.<\/p>\n

In order for sap\u00a0to flow, there has to be freezing temperatures, followed by above-freezing temperatures, she said.<\/p>\n

“There just weren’t that many sap flow days,” Van den Berg\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

Was there really a ‘shortage’ of syrup.<\/h2>\n

‘Canada tapping reserve maple syrup supply amid shortage’<\/p>\n

‘Facing shortages, Canada taps its strategic reserve\u00a0of maple syrup’<\/p>\n

It was headlines like those that made Van den Berg bristle, she said.<\/p>\n

“We had\u00a0a year where the harvest was not super. It actually wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t as good as it had been in past years, and the reserve was there to perform its function,” she said. “And there was\u00a0no disruption in supply. There is no shortage.”<\/p>\n

“All of the headlines said ‘maple syrup shortage,'” she said. “And literally, there is no shortage because of the reserve.”<\/p>\n

\"Mapple
Jugs of maple syrup line a shelf. In 2021, there was about 60 million kilograms of maple syrup produced, an average amount when compared to past years but down 40 million pounds compared to 2020. (Hallie Cotnam\/CBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Philippe\u00a0Charest-Beaudry, the owner of Ste-Anne-de-la-Rochelle, Que.-based Brien Maple Sweets, which packages and sells bottles of\u00a0maple syrup, said his company has been able to fill every contract so far this year.<\/p>\n

“<\/strong>I’ve not heard in the industry other players that were not able to meet contracts,” he said.<\/p>\n

Has the reserve ever run into trouble with its stock?<\/h2>\n

Between 2011 and and 2012 around 3,000 tonnes\u00a0were stolen from a storage facility in Quebec. But it was a few years earlier than that\u00a0when the strategic reserve\u00a0actually did run\u00a0dry.<\/p>\n

“People probably don’t remember, but in 2008, after two or three years in a row of bad production, just bad weather, [they]\u00a0ran out of syrup in the reserve,” said Mike Farrell<\/p>\n

“There was nothing there and there wasn’t enough syrup to go around. Prices spiked. We lost a lot of markets for pure maple syrup,”he said.<\/p>\n

\"Maple
A tree is tapped for maple syrup harvest. Many places didn’t have good weather for sap flow until later in the production season, said Abby van den Berg, a research associate professor at the University of Vermont’s Proctor Maple Research Center in Underhill, Vt. (CBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ray Bonenberg,\u00a0former president of the International Maple Syrup Institute and a\u00a0maple syrup producer near Pembroke, Ont., said 2008 was an “awful year in production.”<\/p>\n

“It was abnormally cold until\u00a0April 1st and then it got really warm, and I know my season was like eight days so it was disastrous,” he said.\u00a0“The\u00a0reserve was right down to the bottom, and has\u00a0been building it up.”<\/p>\n

What does this mean for next year?<\/h2>\n

Farrell said the 22.7\u00a0million kilograms\u00a0of maple syrup represents\u00a0a\u00a0\u00a0“significant amount to take out the reserve this year.” But what does that mean for the near future of the reserve?<\/p>\n

There are currently around 50 million maple syrup taps in Quebec. In July, the QMSP\u00a0approved the\u00a0issuance of seven million new ones\u00a0to meet the demand.<\/p>\n

“From our\u00a0\u00a0perspective, we believe it should solve the issue on the short term basis,” said\u00a0Charest-Beaudry, “I don’t see\u00a0 a season next year\u00a0where\u00a0there’s no more\u00a0maple syrup in\u00a0the grocery store.”<\/p>\n

CBC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canada’s maple syrup industry has become an international focus in recent days, with headlines shouting that\u00a0the country\u00a0has been forced to tap into its strategic reserve\u00a0to make up for shortages<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":88398,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3539],"tags":[3570,21598],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Why-Canada-is-unlocking-its-vault-of-maple-syrup-Milenio-Stadium-Canada.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88397"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88397"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88409,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88397\/revisions\/88409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}