Canadian maple syrup production hits record high in 2022!

[bill barilko]

All Good News All the Time!

Canadian maple syrup production hits record high in 2022

Julie Doucette, centre, hangs a bucket on the maple tree she tapped at the Vanier Museopark sugar bush in Ottawa,

Canada's maple syrup producers had a record harvest this year, pulling in 79.1 million litres of the sweet stuff, a recent report from Statistics Canada shows.

This year's harvest represents a 53.8 per cent increase from 2021 and is the highest yield on record, dating back to at least 2008.

"Production was up across all maple-producing provinces largely because of favourable weather conditions and continued expansions in the industry," the report, released on Dec. 14, says.

"Higher yields in 2022 followed the previous year's lower production brought on by a short maple season attributable to warm spring temperatures in 2021."

StatCan reports maple production in imperial gallons, which in 2022 rose to 17.4 million across Canada.

Quebec harvested more than 91 per cent of the country's maple syrup, producing 72.3 million litres or 15.9 million gallons, a 59.1 per cent increase from 2021 and a new record high for the province, StatCan says.

Producers in New Brunswick reported a 3.2 per cent increase to their maple harvest in 2022, producing about 3.7 million litres or 810.9 thousand gallons, which StatCan attributes to new tappings and a growing industry.

New Brunswick reported the second most maple taps in the country in 2021 at 3.5 million, a StatCan report this past summer found.

The report says farms in the province had the highest rate of taps per farm on average in the country at 18,744, far greater than the national average of 4,735.

Ontario, the third largest producer of maple in Canada, also saw historic high yields in the northern parts of the province, which contributed to a 27.7 per cent rise in production to 2.7 million litres or 589.8 thousand gallons.

Canadian producers exported close to 38.6 million litres or 8.5 million gallons of maple products in the first three-quarters of this year, a 3.4 per cent decrease from record-high exports over the same period last year, StatCan says.

A 2020 report from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada found the country accounts for approximately three-quarters of the world's maple syrup production, followed by the United States.

The record harvest comes after the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers accessed its strategic reserve last year in order to meet domestic and export demand.

Located at the Laurierville plant and warehouse about 200 kilometres northeast of Montreal, the massive reserve can hold 94,000 barrels of maple syrup, each containing 205 litres.

StatCan says increased production in the province allowed the federation to replenish the reserve.

In June 2021, Quebec Maple Syrup Producers also announced that it would issue seven million new taps for startup and expansion projects, bringing the total number in production to nearly 57 million by 2024.

 

[petros]

I heard it was mostly dark which is the best

 

[spaminator]

Ontario maple syrup producers hit by climate change, some urge carbon reductions
"We've always had winter thaws, but they've become more significant in the last 20 years," John Williams said

Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Tyler Griffin
Published Mar 07, 2023 • 3 minute read

Increasingly unpredictable winter temperatures have Ontario maple syrup producers concerned about how climate change will affect the industry’s future, with some pushing for environmentally friendly practices to reduce the sector’s carbon footprint.


Prolonged mild conditions last month had maple syrup producers in southern Ontario tapping trees for sap in early February — significantly earlier than when tapping season has historically begun in early to mid-March. A cold spell last week then forced a pause on the early start to operations.


The executive director of the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers’ Association said there’s evidence that spring-like weather is starting earlier each year, creating uncertainty in the delicate freeze-thaw cycles that producers rely on.

“We’ve always had winter thaws, but they’ve become more significant in the last 20 years,” John Williams said in an interview.

“They’ve increased in the frequency we’ve had them and also the length of time that we stay warm, so it’s harder for us to estimate when we should be tapping.”


The swings in weather mean producers have to rush to tap trees when temperatures shift unexpectedly, with little time to prepare for the operations.

“We get behind the eight ball when those kinds of quick transitions happen,” he said.

Changes in technology used in maple syrup production have generally helped producers deal with the issue, but the sector is watching the situation carefully, Williams said.

Some larger operations in southern Ontario have bought stands of maple trees in northern regions because the viable temperature zone for making maple syrup is shifting farther north.

Producers have also had to deal with increasingly frequent windstorms that uproot maple trees, as well as invasive pests that can spread with rising temperatures. An infestation of tent caterpillars in 2018 left some Ontario producers with 30 per cent less syrup than the year before.


The maple syrup producers association nonetheless expects substantial growth over the next 10 years, with millions of taps being added in Ontario, Quebec and some American states. And demand for maple syrup shows no sign of slowing.

Keeping up with global demand will require tapping 120 million more trees by 2080, the industry has said. That will add to the carbon levels in the atmosphere due to the wood or other fossil fuels burned to boil the sap collected from maple trees down to syrup.

Paul Renaud, who owns a sugar bush in Lanark Highlands, has been working with the maple syrup producers association to get producers to switch to carbon-neutral practices by making their sap evaporators more efficient.

It takes about 40 litres of sap to make one litre of maple syrup. Renaud said 85 to 90 per cent of emissions that a maple syrup producer has comes from the boiling of sap.


If sap evaporators are more efficient, carbon emissions can be cut down significantly, he said. Well-maintained maple trees also store more carbon via a process known as natural sequestration — in which trees take in and store carbon dioxide, helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Renaud said.

Efficient operations could encourage producers to tap more trees, making it unlikely for those trees to be cut down and therefore allowing more carbon to be stored in forests, he added.

The combination could eventually lead to producers having net-neutral, or even net-negative, emissions, Renaud said.

“There’s no false choice between being green and being profitable,” he said. “Being profitable generally means reducing waste and unnecessary expenses, and as you become more efficient, you consume less energy, your carbon footprint goes down.”


Climate change is having a substantial effect on the maple syrup industry, Renaud said, and extreme weather events like windstorms can have devastating consequences. If a maple tree is blown over, it can take 40 years to grow another tree to the size required for tapping, he said.

“You can mitigate it by being part of the solution,” he said. “The reality is our collective activities can make a difference.”

Peter Kuitenbrouwer, a registered professional forester who is writing a book about the history of maple syrup in Canada, said an overall transition by Canadians to renewable energy is needed to help mitigate the effects of climate change and, in turn, help protect the maple syrup sector.

It’s important to protect the industry from the effects of climate change because of its cultural value as well, he said.

“It’s this symbol of renewal, spring, hope, kind of redemption after the misery of winter,” he said. “I think that’s something a lot of Canadians relate to.”

Ontario maple syrup producers hit by climate change, some urge carbon reductions

"We've always had winter thaws, but they've become more significant in the last 20 years," John Williams said in an interview.

torontosun.com

 

[petros]

Prove it. Show statistics or its all bullshit.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Beware the syrup thieves.

 

[petros]

Le cartel.