The 2021 Maple Syrup Harvest

LONGUEUIL, QC - Québec Maple Syrup Producers (QMSP) and the Conseil de l'industrie de l'érable (CIE) report that the trend of record maple syrup harvests ended in 2021. Production for the entire province is estimated at 133 million pounds of syrup. This is considered an average harvest. The announcement came a few days after QMSP's Annual General Meeting.

Warm Spring — Short Harvest Season

The warm temperatures experienced across Québec in April brought about an unusual occurrence: all maple syrup producing regions saw their harvest seasons begin – and end prematurely – at the same time.

Fortunately, QMSP has the wherewithal to mitigate Mother Nature's unpredictability. The Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve holds enough stock to meet the industry's short- and medium-term needs for "conventional" product. And, as stocks decline (as is currently the case for organic syrup), QMSP can issue additional quotas so that producers can address that demand. This is one of the issues under discussion in the coming days. "We'll be analyzing maple syrup sales and make projections for what we'll need going forward. This will help us assess whether new quotas are in order," said QMSP president Serge Beaulieu.

As for the harvest being poorer than last year's, Mr. Beaulieu adopts a tone of reassurance: "I've been making maple syrup for over 40 years. I've seen bad harvests, average harvests, and exceptional harvests, like we had in 2020. These are the realities of the profession. Yes, it can hit the producer's bottom line. That's why it's important to have crop insurance. But also remember: producers get paid for their syrup when it's sold from the reserve."

On behalf of authorized buyers of bulk maple syrup, Conseil de l'industrie de l'érable president Sylvain Lalli foresees no drop anywhere in consumer demand for 2021. The pandemic had absolutely no downward effect on the appetite for maple syrup in any market. Bulk buyers snapped up 147 million pounds from QMSP last year, an increase of more than 14% from the year previous. Foreign exports in 2020, meanwhile, rose 21.9% over 2019 and, according to statistics for the first few months of 2021, sales are holding strong and look promising for the rest of the year.