The weather cooperated with the maple run this year, creating just the right temperatures to get the sap flowing throughout March and April in all of Quebec’s maple-producing regions to produce an all-time high amount of syrup, according to the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers.
With the sole exception of the week of March 14-21, the exceptional conditions of slight freezing at night and thawing during the day produced a crop that will go down in history. The 42.7 million taps operated by the 7,300 maple syrup producers in Quebec produced 120.3 million pounds of syrup, an all-time high, with an average of 2.82 pounds per tap.
The previous record was from 2009, when production hit 109 million pounds and average production per tap was 2.65 pounds. Yet, 2013 provides not just quantity, but also quality. The classification reports to date show the harvest to be of very good quality, due in part to the absence of a heat wave during sugaring season.
“What was special about this year: perfect sugaring conditions that lasted a relatively long time for all of Quebec’s regions. As of the second week of March, all Quebec regions were already in production, which is really uncommon, and all of them produced until at least the second-to-last week of April, which is even more uncommon,” explained Serge Beaulieu, president of the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers.
“As such, the maple producers in the far east of Quebec, specifically in Bas-Saint-Laurent, had yields as high as those of their fellow producers to the west, in Montérégie (2.96 pounds/tap and 2.93 pounds/tap, respectively).”
After the string of relatively poor harvests from 2005 to 2008, the strategic maple syrup reserve that has been gradually amassed since 2009 has played an important role in guaranteeing supply for the development of new markets in both Canada and abroad.
The Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers was founded in 1966 with the mission of promoting the economic, social and moral interests of its 7,300 maple businesses, all working together to collectively market their products. Quebec produces about 75 percent of the global maple syrup output.
