Maple Syrup is a well known pancake topping the world over, it's not booze or drugs, it's just sugar.
The sap has been collected from trees, by Quebec families for hundreds of years, to provide an inexpensive supply of sugar syrup for the whole world. Quebec's trees produce 70% of the world's supply, and with the development of plastic piping in the 1970's, farmers have been allowed to tap far more trees, scaling up production. However, this new technology has led to suspicious economics within the industry.
There are approximately 7,400 Quebec farms producing Maple Syrup. The suitable sap only flows when the air temperature rises just above freezing and ends on the first day of warm weather, so predicting the length of production is often impossible. Good old mother nature being unpredictable, meant that the price of the syrup has varied.
So some farmers created co-ops and for many years buyers only took what they needed, leaving producers with the surplus.
Then the "Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers" was created and in 1990, became the ONLY wholesale seller of syrup production and in 2004, gained the power to decide who gets to make Maple Syrup and how much. It's effectively a cartel, approved by Quebec Provincial Government and backed by Quebec law. The federation also has the right to restrict supply and control prices.
Today, the price of Maple Syrup is 20 to 30 times more than the price of crude oil and farmers can't sell their own syrup to whoever they want, whenever they want at the price they want. The feds set the prices to buyers, effectively controlling world production. To keep prices high, they enforce strict quotas, limit supplies and only release the syrup to maintain stable prices. In 2003, members voted to make the production quotas mandatory, meaning farmers could only sell a certain amount each year.
The Feds hoard most of the worlds Maple Syrup in a warehouse in Laurierville, Quebec, with a current reserve of 60 million pounds (weight). Throughout the year the syrup is shipped around the world to companies for bottling, flavouring and making sweets.
Under this system, syrup prices have risen and some say has helped farmers have full time employment. They know they are guaranteed a price and guaranteed to sell their production every year. But the Feds can also say when the trees can't be tapped and impose heavy fines on farmers who don't follow the rules.
The control of production and sales has led to battles between the Feds and the farmers. If any farmers are suspected of selling outside of the system, it posts 24 hour guards on their properties and can seize their production. One farmer was fined $278,000 Cdn for not joining the system and for selling to a buyer in Ontario. The Federation even patrol corner shops and small supermarkets, to see if producers, who are allowed to sell only at their farms, have expanded their retail presence.
These crippling fines of domestic systems are now facing scrutiny in a global marketplace. (as has been Canada's refusal to dismantle similar quota systems for dairy and poultry farmers). Some American companies have questioned the Federation's tactics. The American's appreciate the steady supply of syrup, but have issues with the aggressive enforcement, including large fines.
So should it be a free market and free enterprise? The farmers say they should be allowed to set their own level of production and sell directly to large buyers, regardless of the law. This situation could prompt producers and buyers to neighbouring provinces of New Brunswick and Vermont in the States and should consumers buy artificial syrup instead or do the farmers just stop sugaring.
