Just one week after President Joe Biden tapped into oil reserves to help with a global shortage, a Canadian group has announced that it will dip into its emergency supply of maple syrup to try to keep up with global demand.
Sometimes referred to as the “OPEC of Maple Syrup, Canada’s leading trade group, Quebec Maple Syrup Producers (QMSP), is releasing nearly 50 million pounds of its reserve, which is about half of the stockpile, according to CNN Business.
Most people may not realize this, but Quebec produces about 73 percent of all the maple syrup in the world, with U.S. consumers being its biggest client. However, this year’s production won’t be able to keep up with demand, which has increased over 21 percent since last year.
What is the strategic reserve?
According to CBC Canada, the strategic reserve was created in 2000 to keep the syrup in stock and ensure a constant supply for national and international markets. Hélène Normandin, a spokesperson for QMSP talked with CBC about how the system works.
QMSP is run under a supply-management system, she said, meaning it employs a quota system run by the QMSP which dictates market volume. The QMSP also controls the Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve, which can hold more than 45 million kilograms (99.2 million pounds) of maple syrup.
QMSP’s Laurierville Plant and Warehouse, in the Centre-du-Québec region, covers an area of 24,805 square meters (266,998 sq. feet) – the equivalent of five football fields. That site alone can store 25 million kilograms of maple syrup, or 94,000 barrels.
A barrel is worth about $1,200 or $2.88 per pound which is 10-18 times the value of U.S. crude oil, according to Vice in 2017.
Maple syrup can be safely stored for many years. When the harvest is good, and more syrup is produced than needed, the extra can be sold to the QMSP and stored “so that when there are bad years, you have enough to keep people stocked up with syrup on their pancakes,” says Michael Farrell, the former director of Cornell University’s Uihlein Forest, a maple syrup research and extension field station in Lake Placid, N.Y.
“Without this in reserve [this year], there would be much less syrup up on store shelves, and the price would be much higher.”
So, while there can be both good years and not-so-good years in the maple syrup business, Normandin said, “All of the headlines said there was a maple syrup shortage. And literally, there is no shortage because of the reserve.”