New record for maple syrup production but not sales

Canada set a new record for maple syrup production last year.
According to Statistics Canada, the country produced 14.3 million gallons of the sticky stuff, up from 2019’s record of 13.2 million gallons.

That’s not too surprising given the weather this season. Many producers in Eastern Ontario had a good year, with warm days and cold nights getting the sap flowing by March. Unfortunately for some, despite the sap flowing there was nobody to sell it too.

COVID-19 lockdowns shut down sugar shacks and pancake houses, many of which are agri-tourism destinations that offer wagon rides and restaurant meals alongside bottles of syrup. A survey by the Ontario producers’ association estimated an average of 30 per cent revenue loss.

The association’s executive director John Williams told Farmers Forum that most producers had a good year for both production and sales. Overall production was 467,000 gallons, a repeat of 2018 and not far off the record 502,000 gallons in 2019. Overall sales were good for most producers, with the grocery market especially strong, he said. The pain was mostly confined to the pancake houses and sugar shacks, many of which had ordered thousands of dollars of non-syrupy stock such as pancake batter and bacon. “They’ve taken a very hard hit.”