In Order To Avoid A Shortage, Canada Has Tapped Into Its Maple Syrup Reserve

Many goods and commodities have reserve supplies in order to help prevent shortages. Some of these commodities include things like oil, which will create a significant impact on the whole world if the supply runs low. There’s also a cheese stockpile in the U.S., and a Champagne bubbly reserve to make sure we’ll always be able to toast the incoming new year. Now, Canada has had to rap into its most famous reserve: maple syrup.

In June 2021, there were some signs that there might be a maple syrup shortage, especially in Vermont, which is the U.S.’s largest supplier of the sweet syrup. As demand continues and supplies dwindle, the world’s top maple syrup producing area, Quebec, has had to tap into its reserves in order to keep up.

Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, or the OPEC of maple syrup, as they have been called by Bloomberg, has shared with the business news site that they have had to pull about 50 million pounds of maple syrup from their stockpile.

This has been the largest supply release from the reserve since 2008 and the first time in three years that it has needed to be tapped into. The issue is that Quebec has been facing similar weather problems as Vermont, which resulted in a 24% decline in production, while at the same time demand for the sticky syrup has continued to increase.

Spokeswoman Helene Normandin shared: “The pandemic helped in our case because we’re seeing people cook more at home and use more local products. We need to produce more maple syrup… The reserve is there to make sure that we are always able to sell and offer this product.”