The maple groves are already bustling with activity following the early flows triggered by a mild spell at the beginning of February. Maple producers are hoping for a good collection to fill the tanks of the strategic maple syrup reserve which is at its lowest level since 2008.
What there is to know
Maple producers are observing particularly early maple sap flows due to the thaw that occurred at the beginning of February throughout Quebec.
Several maple syrup producers plan to tap much earlier in the coming years.
There are 15 million pounds of syrup remaining in the strategic reserve, which can hold 133 million pounds.
“It takes us a good season,” summarizes Joël Vaudeville, director of communications for the Producteurs et producerrices acéricoles du Québec.
Each sugar season, maple sap flows for five to seven weeks following the rhythm of freezes and thaws. In southern Quebec, this period generally lasts from mid-February to mid-March, while further north, it extends from mid-March to May.
What was special this year is that the first thaw which took place three weeks ago was a thaw across Quebec. Which means that there are producers who left syrup on the table because they had not completed their tapping.
Joël Vaudeville, communications director for Quebec Maple Syrup Producers
It was especially in the Bas-Saint-Laurent and Chaudière-Appalaches regions that producers were taken by surprise.
Maple producer Denis Chouinard, of the Chouinard maple grove in Sainte-Perpétue-de-L’Islet, had not finished his 48,000 taps when the water from his maples began to flow on February 8. The 72-year-old remembers only one other thaw that occurred this early, in the 1980s. “For the region, it’s much earlier because normally it never really starts until the last week of March.” , he said.
Already, his maples have sunk three times and he has boiled two batches. “We are preparing for around March 15, but we will have to think about doing it for February 15” in the future, he believes.
The president of the Maple Syrup Producers of Montérégie-Ouest, Jean-François Touchette, agrees.
“Before, the sugar season, we were talking about the month of March, but now, the big maple syrup producers were already starting to tap in January to be ready for a possible day or two in February. More and more, in February, your installation must be ready, because there are mild spells and it starts early. »
Reserves
Maple syrup production fluctuates greatly from year to year. Quebec has a strategic reserve of maple syrup in order to stabilize the supply from one year to the next. Surplus syrup is stored in three huge warehouses in Laurierville, Plessisville and Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly.
Currently, there are 15 million pounds of syrup remaining in the strategic reserve, which can hold 133 million pounds. Processor stocks were more than 80 million pounds in October 2023, but the producers’ union estimates they will have halved by the end of spring.
Which means that there will be no shortage of syrup for 2024, but we need a good harvest because we must start to replenish the reserve so that it can play its role well in the years to come and then also follow demand. internationally.
Joël Vaudeville, communications director for Quebec Maple Syrup Producers
Temperature fluctuations, ice storms, violent winds: the 2023 harvest was poor. Quebec produced only 124 million pounds of maple syrup compared to 211 million pounds in 2022.
To prevent the reserve from running dry like in 2008, the addition of nearly 7 million new taps by 2026 was announced in the spring. “The figure we have is 739 companies that will be created by 2026.”
But it will also require the collaboration of Mother Nature.
“We must not let the heat set in, that is to say we must not be above 0 degrees at night for too long because what will happen is that the tree, it will think that it is time to start creating buds and that literally gives a taste of bud to the maple syrup,” explains Mr. Vaudeville.