Maple syrup producers praise minister’s call for study
Quebec’s minister of agriculture has ordered an “exhaustive study” of the maple syrup industry in Quebec, to look for ways to protect Quebec’s eroding market share.
“I am aware that our position as world leader in the maple syrup industry is in decline,” Pierre Paradis, agriculture minister in the government of Pierre Couillard, said in a news release. “As minister of agriculture, I cannot let this situation continue. I want to encourage Quebec’s entrepreneurial spirit and it is my duty to find solutions.”
The minister’s announcement, issued Friday, comes three weeks after the National Post reported on a rebellion among Quebec maple syrup producers, who are fighting the stranglehold of the Fédération des producteurs acéricoles du Québec, the maple syrup producers’ federation.
Producers celebrated Tuesday after hearing the minister’s announcement.
“I am very, very, very happy, happy,” said Angèle Grenier, a maple syrup producer in Ste-Clotildede-Beauce. “Hopefully we can get another union in here. Maybe we can get the right to export.”
Quebec’s maple syrup federation had a rather brittle response to the minister’s announcement.
“Marketing tools used to sell Quebec maple syrup have been manhandled in the media in the last few months,” the federation wrote in a news release. “Still, Quebec exports are going up steadily, and sales by our agency hit record levels in 2013-2014. With 43 million taps, four times as many as the United States, Quebec is the world leader in maple syrup production and plans to retain that rank.”
In Quebec, producers may sell syrup in small containers directly at the sugar shack. If producers want to sell syrup to grocery stores, they must pay 12 cents per pound to the federation. The federation handles all bulk sales, and pays producers in instalments; often, producers must wait years for full payment for their syrup.
Some producers do not like the system.
The federation this spring posted security guards in the sugar shacks of several producers, 24 hours a day, to ensure they do not sell a drop of syrup outside the iron confines of Quebec’s maple syrup cartel. The federation has also dragged more than 100 producers in front of the Régie des marchés agricoles, the agricultural tribunal, which enforces rules in Quebec’s farm sector.
To escape these rules, some maple syrup producers have left Quebec to tap maple trees in New Brunswick or in the United States. With producers outside Quebec ramping up production, a report last fall by the federation found that Quebec’s market share of global maple syrup production slipped to 69 per cent today, from 78 per cent 10 years ago.
However, Simon Trepanier, executive director of the federation, said he has a waiting list of 1,000 farmers seeking to receive a quota to produce maple syrup in Quebec, which he called proof of the health of the industry in Quebec.
Paradis named Florent Gagné, a retired civil servant who chairs the board of the Quebec Revenue Agency, to write the report and suggest ways to protect Quebec’s position in the maple syrup business.