It’s been a good year for one of Canada’s most iconic exports. After a challenging year for maple syrup production in 2023, the industry seems to have come out of a sticky spot.
Canada had a record year of maple syrup production in 2024, new data from Statistics Canada revealed on Thursday. However, it may not be enough to lower prices.
“Usually, higher production in agricultural production leads to lower prices, but this is a specialized, processed product,” said Barry Prentice, an agricultural economist at the University of Manitoba.
“Given the large export market, and food inflation, I would say we are lucky just to see no price increase.”
A litre of Grade A maple syrup can range in price from $15-17 at grocery stores like Real Canadian Superstore and Walmart, to $25-28 directly from local producers.
Statistics Canada doesn’t track maple syrup prices specifically but classifies the product within its sugar and syrup index. Yearly annual price changes for the index were down 3.1 per cent in 2019, down 4.5 per cent in 2020, then up 4.6 per cent in 2021, up 15.1 per cent in 2022 and up 9.6 per cent in 2023.
Canadian maple syrup producers harvested 19.9 million gallons of maple syrup in 2024, up 91.3 per cent compared with 2023.
Production was higher across all four maple-producing provinces — Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia — in 2024.
Maple syrup production dropped from 17.4 million gallons in 2022 to 10.4 million gallons in 2023, which Statistics Canada attributed to severe weather such as storms and temperature fluctuations.
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Canada’s strategic maple syrup reserve fell to its lowest level in 16 years in 2023.
Statistics Canada’s 2023 overview of the maple industry said the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers (QMSP) controls the quantity of production in Quebec, the largest maple-producing province in the country, and maintain a strategic reserve of maple syrup.
This is done to “minimize fluctuations in pricing and availability of supply, which is driven by natural variability in annual production.”
Statistics Canada cited “favourable weather conditions and increased yields” in 2024 as the reason behind the strong harvest.
“It’s the weather,” said Prentice.
“It’s just a matter of if the spring conditions are right and the trees run well. You need cold nights and warm days for an extended period. It certainly helps if you have lots of snow.”
Quebec remained Canada’s largest maple syrup producer by far, harvesting 18 million gallons in 2024, up 8.7 million gallons or 92.2 per cent from 2023.
Ontario, which harvested 607,000 gallons, saw an increase of nearly 21 per cent compared to 2023.
Production in Nova Scotia increased by almost one-third from 2023 to 43,000 gallons in 2024.
The biggest percentage jump was in New Brunswick, which saw a 128-per-cent increase by harvesting 1.2 million gallons of maple syrup.
Canadian exports of maple syrup went up too, with Canada exporting 8.4 million gallons of maple products in the first three quarters of 2024, up 8.8 per cent from the same period in 2023.
Prentice said despite the high production, Canadian syrup producers should not have trouble selling their product to the world.
“We produce 71 per cent of the world’s supply and the United States has the other 29 per cent,” he said.
He said 61 per cent of Canada’s maple syrup is exported the U.S., 25 per cent to Europe and the rest to Asia, in addition to the sizeable domestic demand.
“There’s no product like it. It does compete in a certain sense with sugar and honey — it’s a sweetener, but it’s such a unique product in itself,” he said.
Prentice said any surplus maple syrup could simply go towards replenishing reserves due to its long shelf life.
With more maple syrup likely to hit the shelves soon, a bottle of good old maple syrup might just make for a good holiday present.
“This is one of our specialties. Beavers and Mounties and maple syrup are the Canadian icons,” Prentice said.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
