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Maple Houses Tap Sweet Opportunity

January 14, 2009 - GORHAM -- Normally, southern Maine's sugarhouses are hibernating in January.

The largely mom-and-pop operations don't tap sugar maples until the sap starts to flow, usually around the third week of February.

But this year, maple syrup fever is raging across the state thanks to a shortage of the sweet amber liquid. This January, prices have soared and syrup makers are racing to increase production, laying new sap lines and preparing to tap more trees than ever before.

"A lot of people are starting up earlier," said Lyle Merrifield of Gorham, a maple syrup producer who also sells syrup-making equipment and serves as president of the Southern Maine Sugarmakers Association.

The shortage has been caused by a string of bad seasons in Canada and a growing international taste for maple products. Canada produces 85 percent of the world's maple syrup, 90 percent of that in Quebec.

"If maple syrup is like oil, then Quebec is like OPEC," said George Criner, director of the University of Maine's School of Economics.

Quebec growers organized about 40 years ago into the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, which today oversees 10,000 producers in the province.

TECHNOLOGY RESULTED IN GLUT

Technological advances such as reverse osmosis and vacuum piping increased production sharply, creating a glut that had kept prices below the pace of inflation, said Criner. Reverse osmosis removes much of the water from the sap, decreasing boiling time, while vacuum piping sucks the sap from a tree more quickly than the drip method and doesn't require hand collection.

Because of that glut, the federation instituted a quota system, limiting how much syrup each grower is allowed to produce. The federation also manages the supply to keep prices high. But three years of bad syrup-making weather in Canada have tapped out the reserves.

Maple producers in northern Maine also were hit hard the past few winters, especially last year when frigid temperatures and deep snow interfered with the collection and flow of sap. Sap flows depend on warm, sunny days and below-freezing nights.

Normally, Maine has been the second-largest syrup-producing state in the country, after Vermont. In 2006, Maine produced 300,000 gallons worth $7.2 million, compared with Vermont's 460,000 gallons worth $13 million.

In 2008, Maine produced only 215,000 gallons, 4 percent less than in 2007. The dollar value has not yet been calculated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Maine finished third in 2008 syrup production behind New York's 322,000 gallons, according to Agriculture Department figures.

Maine's decline – it was the only state to see production drop last year – has been blamed on severe cold in the large production areas to the north. Southern Maine and other parts of New England, New York, Ohio and other states had solid yields. New England production in 2008 was 870,000 gallons, up 13 percent from 2007.

U.S. production totaled 1.64 million gallons, up 30 percent from the year before, according to Agriculture Department figures. But the increase was not enough to offset the 4.8 percent drop in Canada, which produced 4.9 million gallons last year.

At the same time, world demand for maple syrup has been growing, with new markets in Japan and Germany, largely because of marketing by the Canadians. Their exports increased 15 percent from 2005 to 2007, to $156 million annually.

The shortage has doubled the price of maple syrup in some categories, said Michael Bryant, who operates Hilltop Boilers in Newfield and is a former president of the Maine Maple Producers Association.

A quart of maple syrup is going for about $14.50 at the retail level, up from $8 last year, while bulk prices are about $45 per gallon, compared with $24 a gallon last year, Bryant said. Many sugarhouses buy in bulk when their own reserves run out.

Some of Maine's largest maple syrup operations have run out of syrup.

"Basically, there is no supply, and there is no syrup available until next season," said Jeremy Steeves, who produces on average about 8,000 gallons a year at his family's Strawberry Hill Farms in Skowhegan.

Last season, his production was down 40 percent. Steeves said the weak American dollar exacerbated the situation.

"Buyers from Canada came down here and bought where they normally don't," he said.

Maple syrup is still available in stores, and restaurants can still buy it from their wholesalers and from some smaller operations in southern Maine that kept some of last season's product on hand.

Gile's Family Farm in Alfred has plenty of syrup, said Frank Boucher, co-owner. It is priced at $42 a gallon, up from $36 last year, but about $3 below the wholesale price. Boucher said people wouldn't buy it if it were priced any higher.

Pricing is a touchy subject among producers. Like Michael Smith, president of the Maine Maple Syrup Producers Association, many producers worry that if prices go too high, customers will switch to other sweeteners, such a corn syrup.

"I hate the thought of it," said Smith, who runs Mike's Maplehouse in Winthrop.

Restaurants are keenly aware of the high price of maple syrup. Joe Cattogio, owner of Bintliff's American Cafe in Portland, goes through five gallons every two weeks. He charges extra for real maple syrup, and even though he increased the price of syrup from $1.50 to $1.75 this year, the restaurant is still losing money on the item.

He said he sells it anyway because customers expect the real thing. "We decided to eat the cost," he said.

PLANNING TO INCREASE PRODUCTION

Maple syrup producers are scrambling to take advantage of the high prices, increasing their production capacity for the coming season. Gile's Family Farm is adding 500 new taps this winter, bringing the total to 2,500. That should yield about 125 more gallons of syrup, said Boucher.

Matt Roy of Royal Maple in Buxton is tripling his taps from 850 last year to 2,500 this year and hoping to buy sap as well to boost his production.

"It's definitely because of the prices," he said.

Nobody knows how long the prices will hold. Much depends on the weather.

Merrifield, who is adding 100 taps this season, is looking for a sustained boom.

"We might have a good three to four years to get everyone's supplies back up," said Merrifield.

Steeves gives the boom another year or two, as Canadians continue to buy up the American supply to build back their reserves.

Katherine Hopkins, maple syrup production educator for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Service in Somerset County, said the ice storm last month devastated the maple trees in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, which will depress production in those states this season.

But Tig Tillinghast, a producer in Thetford, Vt., who follows the industry on his blog, flavorchase.tillinghastmaple.com, expects prices to drop back down to $36 a gallon this season.

He said that drop will be caused by falling global demand. Some food processors who have used maple syrup as a flavoring will switch to less-expensive imitation products.

He said the drop in demand also will be driven by the fading popularity of the maple syrup diet touted by singer/actress Beyonce and other celebrities. Tillinghast describes the diet as a "terribly disgusting fad weight-loss program that is best not described." It involves drinking a concoction of maple syrup, lemon juice and cayenne pepper.

Tillinghast said the rush to increase production this year also will boost supplies. The Quebec federation raised the quota for its members this season by 12 percent.

"It is the classic agricultural market phenomenon. You have a boom in prices, and everyone has this clever idea to make three times as much," he said.

By BETH QUIMBY, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, January 11, 2009


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