Prolonged ice rain across a large swath of central Ontario left over 600,000 people without power for several days and maple syrup producers scrambling to assess damage to sugar bush infrastructure and trees.

Why it matters: Ontario’s maple syrup industry is resilient, with improvements in technology and marketing, but isn’t exempt by impacts from tariffs or Mother Nature.

“I have heard from some it is the end of their season because of the damage,” said John Williams, Ontario Maple Syrup Producers’ Association executive director. “This would mean a 30 to 50 per cent loss depending on location, plus the costs and labour to make repairs.”

Others, such as Williams, sustained moderate damage and expect to tap the bush next year, with a smaller percentage foreseeing an interruption in maple syrup production while the trees recover.

William doesn’t anticipate the ice storm triggering bankruptcies; however, there is a troubling trend of financial shock impacts related to weather, the pandemic and political uncertainty leading to the retirement of sugar bush operators.

Pefferlaw Creek Farms, owned and operated by John Tomory and his brothers, spans more than 1000 tappable acres split between two locations, the central processing farm in Uxbridge and the production operation in Haliburton.

Two seasons ago, John Tomory of Pefferlaw Creek Farms experienced a 30 per cent production loss at their Uxbridge location due to a devastating tornado. The financial consequences linger despite infrastructure repairs and a new 1,000-acre sugar bush launched in Haliburton the following season.

He’s optimistic that February’s deep snow and a prolonged thaw will keep forests colder for longer, delaying budding for a potentially higher yield, resulting in a full financial recovery. In the days before the late March storm, Tomory was philosophical in finding the sap-filled lining of a potentially devastating ice rain cloud.

“After freezing rain, you get really, really significant flows of sap. So, on the one hand, yes, we run the risk of losing trees and branches and all the rest of it,” Tomory said. “But on the other, good flows often come after the freezing rain.”

Sault Ste. Marie producer Kyle Gilbertson expected the storm to hit his 600-acre sugarbush hard. However, by Sunday, March 30, he texted that ice buildup was manageable, but potential wind damage remained a concern.

While the two maple syrup producers share the same weather concerns, the threat of tariffs and impact on market access differ.

Tomory sells most maple syrup products within British Columbia and Ontario and is the exclusive sap supplier for Sap Sucker beverages crafted in Flesherton, Ont.

“(Sap Sucker) represents an enormous percentage of our yield, probably 30 to 40 per cent,” explained Tomory, adding cornering the market included a significant investment into an ultra-filtration system, which few operations have, to produce shelf-stable sap.

Tariff troubles

Williams said that unlike Quebec, which exports large volumes of syrup to the U.S., Ontario only makes about 50 per cent of what we consume.

“If a glut of syrup happens due to the tariffs, prices for syrup in Ontario could be pushed down or at least not increase at the same rates as our costs,” he explained. “We could feel some pressure here, but not as much as Quebec.”

Gilbertson exports products to the United States and can see tariffs indirectly impacting the industry through increased fuel, material, and necessary input costs.

“When you’ve got such a huge market like the States on a land border right next door, that’s pretty convenient compared to having to ship to other parts of the world,” Gilbertson shared. “It’s hard to say what will happen, but it’s going to affect it somehow, and not likely for the better.”

Gilbertson said producers have limited control over the tariffs beyond utilizing their vote. Otherwise, it’s more of a wait-and-see situation.

“There’s a lot of people that put a lot of hard work into it (maple syrup production) every year,” he said. “If they (consumers) keep putting it on their pancakes, that’s a good thing.”

Steve Brackenridge, a maple syrup producer and Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) director, recently encouraged consumers to look for the “Sweet Ontario” label in an OFA commentary.

The designation indicates Ontario-made maple products and supports OFA’s Home Grown campaign, which aims to educate consumers about the importance of preserving Ontario’s farmland.

He said “Home Grown” products offer a goodness that mass-produced alternatives cannot match.

“By choosing local, you are supporting these small businesses and helping to keep these traditions alive,” he said. He added that Ontario produces approximately 1.7 million litres of maple syrup annually and is Canada’s second-largest maple syrup-producing province.

He added the Sweet Ontario label ensures a flavour that reflects the province’s terroir, distinctive soils, and climate, adding that Ontario sap is processed using clean, efficient technologies that promote forest sustainability.

“Sweet Ontario maple syrups have zero preservatives or additives, so rest assured, Ontario maple syrup is one of the most pure farm products around,” Brackenridge wrote.

The post Sticky business appeared first on Farmtario.

Randal Goodfellow, Ontario Maple Syrup Producers’ Association president, said the Maple Production Improvement Initiative is the first industry-specific program with $1 million available for projects up to $20,000 with 50 per cent cost-sharing.

Why it matters: Ontario dropped from second to third place in the country for total maple syrup production, lagging behind Quebec and New Brunswick.

“We had to do a very detailed strategic plan for the sector and development of the sector because our potential is so massive,” said Goodfellow. “If we could produce as much as Quebec, if we had the right people and scale – that’s a big economic development opportunity.”

Producers fully subscribed to the Sustainable Canadian Agriculture Partnership-funded program supporting investment in equipment and woodlot management within hours of intake opening on Nov. 9, 2023.

Goodfellow believes a program top-up or extension is necessary. He said the funding would allow producers to upgrade or improve existing infrastructure, such as remote monitoring, sap collection pumps, reverse osmosis or evaporator equipment, as well as woodlot improvements.

“Eighty-three per cent of our membership is below the economic breakeven level, including myself,” he said. “But I’m also increasing my taps now that I’m retired and moved near my sugar bush.”

For some producers, like Lanark’s Marty Ennis of Ennis Maple Products, funding could allow them to achieve a part-time breakeven or full-time economic viability.

A maple producer and engineer, Ennis and his brother took over the 4,500-tap maple bush 16 years ago, crafting a full-time breakeven multi-year business plan.

“This isn’t my sole source of income, but I’m not too far away from a tipping point where it could be,” he said. “(Funding is) allowing us to sort of kickstart that acceleration into the next level where you can make it viable and profitable.”

Ennis’s funding will allow him to add 1,000 new taps and two electrical mechanical releasers to bolster vacuum levels, resulting in an expected 10 to 20 per cent increase in production and a reduction in labour costs.

“Every little per cent helps. (It) can be the difference between being profitable and paying everybody else but not paying yourself that year,” he said.

“At 50 per (cost-share), that makes a project you’re on the fence about now viable, which means more Ontario maple syrup on shelves.”

While small operators are aging out, a new generation of 20- to 40-year-olds, like John Tomory, 34, and his brothers at Pefferlaw Creek Farms, are stepping into operations where, at minimum, the part-time breakeven is established and expanding.

Tomory’s certified organic maple syrup hybrid operation is one of the province’s largest, with 35,000 taps in the south and 25,000 new taps in the north after eight years in the industry.

“The vast majority of our installed infrastructure (around the Uxbridge-area home farm) was on rented land, and that was a major risk point for our business,” said Tomory.

They took possession of 1,000 northern acres in September 2022, shortly after a storm knocked out 30 per cent of their Uxbridge operation.

The new taps produced 1.4 litres of sap per tree in the first season. Trucking concentrated sap south to the Uxbridge facility for processing was more economical than investing in on-site infrastructure, labour and machinery. The Uxbridge site’s oversized evaporator easily accommodates input from 50,000 taps, and one truck sat idle after losing 120 acres of bush.

“There’s no return on the building; there’s return on the tubing in the forest. We’re trying to save all our money for the bush work,” he said. “Let’s say we do push it to 70,000 taps instead of the 60,000 taps (evaporator capacity). We would rather suffer for a season, see how it works, and then make that decision later.”

After two years of storm clean-up, Tomory’s approved funding will upgrade the Uxbridge woodlot infrastructure, and discussions about developing the northern operation are on the to-do list.

Tomory said they’d love to be a sap hub that could assist new or smaller producers with a less capital- and management-intensive system.

“The two most expensive pieces of equipment in a sugar shack are your reverse osmosis and your evaporator. If you can at least remove one, that saves you a whole bunch of money in the first year,” he said.

“We can boil 100,000 taps worth of sap up there. We would very much be interested in something like that.”

The Algoma region tops provincial taps, and Goodfellow anticipates increased migration north of Highway 7, where younger producers can tap into expansive tracts of maple stands and affordable land leases.

Ennis said government funding has spurred a lot of growth. Still, compared to New Brunswick’s growth, the government could bolster the untapped potential of Ontario’s maple syrup industry with increased Crown land access and funding.

“It wasn’t that long ago that Ontario was bigger than New Brunswick,” he said.

New Brunswick growth

Frédérick Dion, president of the New Brunswick Maple Syrup Association, said increased access to Crown land was the linchpin for the industry’s rapid growth.

With the addition of 5,000 hectares in 2023, the industry now harvests 0.7 per cent of New Brunswick’s Crown land, just shy of 20,000 hectares. Dion believes the industry could share land management on increased hectares with the forest industry to benefit the woodlots and the province.

According to a Feb. 2 Université de Moncton economic report on the maple syrup industry, it contributed $37 million to New Brunswick’s GDP and $3.6 million to provincial revenue, an increase of 173 per cent since 2010.

For every 1,000 hectares of sugar leases on Crown land, the study projected the province stands to gain 26 jobs and $1.8 million in GDP, or $200,000 in direct revenue.

Dion said data in the report supports the push for Crown land expansion and incentive program proposals at the provincial and federal levels.

“We’ve had a big growth in the last 12 years. If we want to have a real discussion about the land, we need current data and information to put forward. Now we can discuss the right percentage of Crown land that should be allowed sugar leases.”

From 2010 to 2022, the New Brunswick maple syrup industry increased its number of taps by 86 per cent, to 3.5 million, syrup production by 162 per cent to 811,000 gallons, and production value to $33 million – a 77 per cent increase.

In that time, producer access to Crown land grew from 9,239 hectares to 13,078, accounting for 77.5 per cent of provincial taps. That places it third in global maple syrup production, behind Quebec and Vermont.

To grow the industry over the next 10, 20 or 50 years requires decisions and an action plan by the government, said Dion.

Ontario saw a decline in maple syrup farms between 2011 and 2021, according to a 2022 Agriculture and Agri-Food Ontario statistical overview.

By comparison, New Brunswick more than doubled its syrup production and farm cash receipts from 2018 to 2022 to nearly five million kilograms and approximately $33 million.

Ontario, which led New Brunswick in 2018, saw fewer gains in production kilograms and farm receipts, growing by less than a million kg and $10 million.

Tomory said with inflation, high interest rates and rising minimum wages, many operations’ expansion plans are on hold because no one wants to take on too much debt. Access to low-interest bank loans could spur investment and growth.

“We want to try and dump as much money as possible from our business into the business. That means making a more measured expansion plan, so funding would change that dramatically.”

The post Ontario’s maple syrup sector sees sweet growth potential appeared first on Farmtario.

The federal ag lender on Tuesday said it will offer an unsecured credit line of up to $500,000 with loan processing fees waived, “to help producers, agribusinesses and agri-food operations with their immediate cash flow needs.”

FCC said it’s making the offer to both new and existing customers who are “experiencing financial difficulties, including cash flow challenges, due to higher-than-average input costs and elevated interest rates.”

While the Bank of Canada has maintained its policy rate since January, FCC warned in a March outlook that “additional intervention” could still be required to get inflation to two per cent.

Elevated inflation and interest rates are expected to slow consumer spending and business investments, FCC said in March, adding that if the U.S. Federal Reserve continues raising its policy rate, that could lead to a lower Canadian dollar if the Bank of Canada extends its pause.

A global economic slowdown has also resulted in lower growth in Canadian ag and food export volume, FCC said at the time.

Cost pressures in the “current economic environment” are difficult to pass on, FCC said Tuesday, and that’s led to “tough financial circumstances for some operations.”

“While the current experiences of individual operations within the different agriculture and food sectors are varied, we hope those who identify with these challenges will use this credit line as an opportunity to work through their current position and build back stronger than before,” FCC chief operating officer Sophie Perreault said in a release.

FCC reiterated it can offer flexibility to customers who are going through “challenging business cycles and unpredictable circumstances” on a case-by-case basis, such as through flexible payment options, payment deferrals or credit lines.

For example, the lender said last Thursday it would consider additional short-term credit options, deferral of principal payments and/or other loan payment schedule amendments for customers in B.C.’s wine sector up against financial hardship following “prolonged cold temperatures” last winter that caused significant damage to wine grapevines.

FCC said May 16 it would also consider similar supports for maple syrup producers in Eastern Canada following an “unfavourable change in temperature this spring” that shortened the maple syrup harvest in most parts of the region.

“This limited harvest can cause financial challenges for farm operations – not to mention personal hardship and stress,” Manon Duguay, FCC’s vice-president of operations for Quebec and Atlantic Canada, said in a separate release at the time.

“We stand by our customers over the long term, helping them pursue opportunities and overcome challenges, and this year’s unfavourable temperature has certainly been challenging for many maple syrup business owners.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post FCC offers new credit line against ‘current economic environment’ appeared first on Farmtario.

But while some producers welcomed the season’s early arrival, the chair of the Climate Change Working Group of the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association sees ominous signs of what’s to come from global warming.

Why it matters: Syrup producers typically have a short weather window in which to complete their harvest and it could become more precarious as climate changes.

“We will see truncated seasons more and more,” Paul Renaud told Farmtario Feb. 16, the day he began the first of 150 taps on his small-scale Lanark County operation.

If syrup producers aren’t efficient in their tapping and collecting, he added, the variability of when the season starts and finishes in coming years will make it more difficult to profit from making syrup.

Renaud said the sap hadn’t started running in his sugarbush but he will be ready when warm days come.

There is still some snow cover in eastern Ontario and the ground remains frozen.

That’s not the case around London and further south and west.

Jim Lumsden, of Lumsden Bros. Maple Syrup, started tapping Feb. 5 and finished Feb. 7, with 1,560 taps on vacuum lines between Nairn and Strathroy.

“There were ideal weather conditions coming up. I didn’t want to miss it,” he told Farmtario, noting other producers in his area tapped around the same time.

The earliest he has ever tapped in the past was Feb. 10, and whenever tapping has occurred in February, it has always seen short runs with low quantity. The sap would stop running a few days later when weather turned cold.

This year, by contrast, the weather was ideal for more than a week. Lumsden Bros. boiled for eight straight days and produced approximately 60 per cent of the amount of syrup they would bottle in an average harvest season. Those consecutive days of collecting and boiling are “very unusual for February. That usually doesn’t happen until March.”

Lumsden said the 2023 syrup “is excellent quality. The flavour is just beautiful. It’s nice and clear.”

The warming trend and shorter winters of recent years are undeniable but Lumsden is philosophical.

“In the end, there’s nothing you can do about it. That’s the thing about Mother Nature. She holds all the cards.”

This year there are no signs of buds in the sugar maples, so he expects at least a second sap run when warm weather returns.

As for the future, he’s confident his trees won’t suffer from a winter in which there was little ground freezing and almost no snow cover. Syrup is made as far south as Ohio now and “they have winters more like what we’ve had this year.”

Chad Jakeman, CEO of Jakeman’s Maple Syrup near Beachville, believes the short-term consequence of a warming climate is an extended syrup season but it also makes it more unpredictable. Producers who can adapt quickly to tap and boil when the opportunity arises will benefit.

“If it’s an early season, those kinds of producers tend to make more syrup, on average,” he said, but it’s not so good for those whose labour and infrastructure are tied more directly to the calendar.

Jakeman qualifies that by noting every year is different. In 2021, for example, consumer demand roughly doubled in the wake of COVID-19. But sugarbush operators across northeastern North America saw their harvest limited by adverse weather conditions and yielded just 60 per cent compared to a normal year.

“I’m beholden to the weather every year,” said Jakeman, who brings in syrup from much of southern Ontario and into the north and east. It is processed at a new bottling and packaging facility that opened just as the pandemic hit in March 2020.

“For me, (the start of tapping) is a really nervous time of the year because I never know what the harvest is going to look like.”

Jakeman shares others’ uncertainty about the effects of climate change on the industry. He hopes his company’s recent efforts to diversify packaging and marketing will help “future-proof” the business. His company is now the largest syrup packer in Ontario, supplying about 1,200 grocery stores across the country and in the U.S. and U.K.

He’s confident Ontario’s maple syrup sector will survive or grow even if the sugar maple’s range decreases in the next few decades.

“Ontario has more maple trees than Quebec, yet Quebec makes 72 per cent of the world’s maple syrup and Ontario makes only five per cent. I think there’s definitely room for growth.”

Renaud is certain there’s cause for grave concern. He cited recent Quebec research indicating that, in 70 years in the southern reaches of the province, autumn and spring conditions of sub-freezing nights and above-freezing days will coincide and there will be little winter ground freezing.

Persistent winter soil moisture will decrease viable sugar maple habitat in southern Quebec, and in Ontario to the south and west of Peterborough, the study said.

Renaud said its unknown whether damage to roots from lower frost coverage and increased soil moisture will affect syrup quality but research is ongoing. He believes “that is another shoe that could drop” on syrup producers as a result of warming temperatures.

“We need to act more vigorously on climate change,” he said.

The Quebec research he cited is based only on rising temperatures but more frequent severe storms are also a threat.

Carbon advantages

On Renaud’s property, the derecho of last May was the most damaging of three major windstorms that took out trees in 2022.

“I lost trees that were two feet in diameter,” he said and other producers in his area lost as many as half their producing trees in 2022.

“If you lose a maple tree, it takes 40 years to replace it. And none of that is insured.”

Some of the climate action goals pursued by the Canadian government and other organizations are aimed at stabilizing the situation by 2050.

“We can’t survive until 2050 if we get increasing frequency of damaging windstorms, as we saw last year,” said Renaud.

He operates on a “climate-neutral basis” and has been encouraging other Ontario syrup producers to pursue the same status, primarily by improving the heat efficiency of evaporation systems.

“Most of the carbon footprint on any syrup facility comes from this,” he said.

Renaud discovered his boiler was operating at only eight per cent efficiency. He made changes to address this and now uses less than a cord of wood for his annual production, compared to the previous four cords, to make the same amount of syrup.

After a couple of years of sharing information with producers across the province and crunching the numbers, he is confident that approximately 70,000 taps in the province are “probably climate-neutral.”

Most larger-scale producers had already made changes to increase efficiency because, when it comes to maple syrup production, fossil fuel efficiency often coincides with economic efficiency.

“When I started out doing this, so many producers were carbon neutral and they didn’t even know it … I’ve yet to find a producer over 1,000 taps that’s not climate neutral.”

The second biggest factor in reducing a syrup producer’s fossil fuel footprint is assessing how they get syrup to market. Packaging should also be addressed, he said.

“There’s a lot of embedded carbon in glass,” said Renaud, but producers of syrup and honey in Ontario can’t re-use glass containers.

“They have it in milk, beer and wine. Why not maple syrup and honey?”

Renaud believes there is a lack of understanding among policymakers about the carbon sequestration contributions made by farms.

No government officials have quantified the carbon sequestration on Canadian farms, he said.

He analyzed two Ontario farms from other production sectors — a large layer facility near London and a 200-cow dairy operation in his region. In both cases, he said the significant number of trees on each farm contributed to carbon sequestration and potentially rendered them carbon neutral.

“We’ve got a great story that we’re not telling.”

He said there’s a problem with climate action funding programs that promote tree planting but offer nothing to farmers for continuing to preserve existing trees and fence lines. One sugar maple, upon reaching tapping size, has already sequestered approximately one tonne of carbon, he said.

“Farmers are being told (through the limited climate action funding scope) that their existing trees have no value. We need to value trees. It’s absolutely essential we value trees.”

The post A bitter sweet surprise: Sugarbush season starts early appeared first on Farmtario.

The resulting turmoil could have damaged a less resilient operation but, according to company CEO Chad Jakeman, the ability to think outside the box helped the business weather the COVID-19 storm.

Jakeman’s, which has been making syrup since 1876, once boasted thousands of taps but during the ownership transition to Chad’s generation, the primary production side was almost all contracted out, except for about 200 taps on his uncle Bruce Jakeman’s property near the main bottling facility.

The family became Ontario’s largest maple packer, receiving syrup from producers across Ontario and processing it into a range of products.

In March 2020, it opened a new bottling facility with certifications allowing it to provide private-label maple products to retailers around the world. There was hope the company could help Ontario maple products take advantage of growth opportunities that had, until then, usually been realized by dominant Quebec-based counterparts.

But COVID-19 revealed that most customers shared a common thread: tourism. Almost overnight, demand for tourist-targeted packaging disappeared, replaced by demand for packaging conducive to home consumption.

Jakeman said the new bottling facility allowed the company to respond.

“We had to diversify to get into the grocery stores,” he said. The business now supplies approximately 1,200 stores across Canada, the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

Three years later, the tourist-centred maple trade has resumed. Jakeman’s was ready. It celebrated the start of 2023 by opening an expansion to the bottling line. Jakeman said the business bought the equipment almost a year ago but didn’t install it until the recent Christmas holidays.

The expansion will allow the company to increase its tourist-centred production without cutting back on the still-strong grocery packaging. It will also allow Jakemans to brainstorm about what might be “the next big thing in maple,” including the current craze of granulated maple sugar.

“We’re always thinking about what’s the next thing we can get into.”

In March, 4-H clubs from the area host their 16th annual Pancake House at Jakeman’s. A fundraiser for 4-H programs, it runs March 4, 5, 11, 12, 15, 18, 19, 25, 26 and April 1,2, with club members serving meals from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Local artisans and crafters will also be on site during the Pancake House.

The post Jakeman’s expands processing capacity appeared first on Farmtario.

A group of people in Quebec siphoned off maple syrup worth over $18 million from a reservoir and replaced it with water, before authorities discovered the robbery in 2012, in what has been dubbed the “great Canadian maple syrup heist.”

Richard Vallieres, who was among the 16 people arrested by police, was found guilty of fraud, trafficking and theft and sentenced to eight years in prison and fined over $9 million by the Quebec Superior Court.

Vallieres had successfully appealed that ruling, getting his fine lowered to about $1 million — the amount Vallieres says he profited from the robbery.

However, Canada’s Chief Supreme Court Justice Richard Wagner said that a court cannot limit the amount of a fine to the profit made by an offender and gave Vallieres 10 years to pay the fine or serve six years in prison.

Julie Giroux, the lawyer representing Vallieres, said her client was disappointed by the court’s decision to restore the initial amount imposed by the first judge and the gravity of having to bear such a substantial fine.

While the value of the stolen amber condiment was much higher, Vallieres sold the syrup for only $10 million, he told the Quebec Superior Court during his trial.

Canada is the largest exporter of maple products, and Quebec holds the world’s only strategic reserve of the sweet topping. Last year, maple syrup producers started releasing more than half of the reserve to ease a syrup squeeze as the pandemic boosted demand as more people started eating at home.

— Reporting for Reuters by Ismail Shakil in Bangalore; additional reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal.

The post Top court affirms hefty fine for man behind Quebec maple syrup heist appeared first on Farmtario.

“Most syrup producers are finding ways for people to purchase their syrup safely,” said Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association (OMSPA) executive director John Williams in a recent interview. “We’re asking people to contact their local producer and try and support them as best as they can.”

Why it matters: The maple sector is now adjusting to shifting pandemic realities for the second consecutive year.

Sales channels vary depending on the operation, but Williams says those who traditionally rely on moving a high percentage of their syrup in conjunction with on-site pancake breakfasts and brunches have faced particular challenges due to the COVID-19 restrictions. 

Plus, anyone without a good social media presence has found it difficult to communicate to the public about alternative avenues for acquiring locally processed products.

A glance through the websites of maple bush operators across the province reveals a range of strategies to cope with prohibitions on large-group gatherings. Some have reverted to order-in-advance outdoor pick-up of pancake meals while others have cancelled their springtime tours and events altogether.

“On our farm, we would sell about 15 per cent of our syrup through our festivals,” Williams explained of his family’s 3,400-tap, Wyebridge-area sugarbush. So they had to adjust – both in 2020 and again this year.

“We were lucky; we already had a toehold into (social media) so we were able to get the message out about how people could get our syrup in other ways.”

Overall, though, maple syrup consumption saw a COVID-19 effect similar to other common kitchen ingredients. “With people cooking more at home, there’s actually more syrup being sold through the pandemic,” Williams reported.

As a result, producers with established relationships with grocery stores or other retail outlets “saw a huge jump in demand. I have heard a bit lately about people being sold out, which they’re not used to.”

On the larger-scale side, commercial producers apparently saw this trend coming as they prepared for the 2021 season. Unofficially at least, the total number of taps increased across the province. Williams has heard of back-ups in supply chains for tapping and collecting supplies as well as processing and packaging materials.

“I ordered bottles in the fall and I’m very glad I did.”

On the smaller scale, supplies have also been tight on the spiles and pails typically employed by do-it-yourselfers.

“All we have left are few spiles,” said the manager of Thorndale’s Ace Hardware, who added the store quickly sold out of its 2021 shipment of “starter kits” featuring everything you need to make your own syrup. She said that, in keeping with a COVID-19 trend to more people getting outside and doing things together as a family, do-it-yourself syrup saw a strong uptick in 2021.

The Murrells are one Thorndale-area family that tapped trees for the first time this year. Dad Andrew told Farmtario his 10-year-old daughter Jennifer first proposed making syrup a little less than a year ago – after the 2020 season had ended – and he told her she would have to wait until February. When February came around and she reminded him about her desire, he headed to Ace Hardware and bought enough supplies to tap four of the maples in the farm’s bush.

They used roasting pans on a woodstove converted to heat their backyard pool, ultimately boiling down four pint jars and two smaller jars of tasty syrup. “So far, we’ve had pancakes and French toast,” reported Mom Rachel. “The kids (Jennifer has a younger sister and brother) are very eager to use it up.”

Next year, Andrew has his sights set on tapping 10 trees. “It was a great time doing it,” he said. “(Jennifer) was out there every day with me collecting sap so it was nice to see.”

For the Murrells, however, the season was short. Situated as they are in the southern portion of the province, a stretch of warm weather in early March spurred bud formation on his four maples and he decided to pull the taps.

In Simcoe County, Williams wasn’t yet at that point and remained hopeful that the season for his farm – as well as for others across all regions of the province – might yet be extended if cooler weather can return soon.

“It can change on a dime,” the OMSPA executive director said of Ontario’s springtime weather.

Without freezing temperatures at night, he explained, sap flow diminishes. “And if (warm weather) persists, trees come out of dormancy and the taps start to close up.”

He recalled the badly-shortened 2012 season when taps were all pulled by mid-March. “People are hoping that’s not what we’re getting into this year.”

In the southwest, Williams reported, there were strong runs early but there has also been an early shift to darker syrup – a signal that microbial activity in the trees and collection systems has increased, thereby shifting the sap’s sugar profile. This happens as conditions warm.

“But everybody has been happy with the flavour they’re getting,” he noted of this year’s syrup quality.

The big remaining question is if cooler nighttime temperatures can return in order for another late-season run to help the province’s producers meet the increased demand.

The post Warm weather could shorten 2021 syrup season appeared first on Farmtario.

Federal Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough announced Nov. 27 the national commodity list (NCL) would be expanded to include seed corn, oil seed, grains and maple syrup — a move which allows farmers who produce those products to seek employees via SAWP.

The NCL helps determine eligibility and pay within the primary agricultural stream of the federal Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program. Access to SAWP and the TFW agricultural stream is limited to employers hiring workers for commodities specifically listed on the NCL.

SAWP is the stream most commonly used in Canadian primary agriculture; it provided 46,707 approved positions in 2019, with 12,858 coming from participating Caribbean countries and the rest from Mexico, the government said.

The NCL — which applies to both seasonal and non-seasonal work — already includes apiary products, fruits and vegetables, mushrooms, flowers; nursery-grown trees, greenhouse and nursery plants, pedigreed canola seed, sod, tobacco, beef and dairy cattle, swine, sheep, poultry and ducks, horses and mink among its other primary ag commodities.

SAWP employees and other TFWs were allowed to enter Canada in 2020 as essential workers under new federal limits on entry to Canada at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government reiterated in its announcement Nov. 27 that COVID outbreaks, which led to illnesses and several deaths among Canada’s TFW labour force during 2020, have since prompted moves to update the minimum requirements for employer-provided TFW accommodations.

Consultations on those proposals began in late October and run until Dec. 22.

The Canadian Seed Trade Association, for one, hailed Qualtrough’s expansions to the NCL, saying the inclusion of seed corn on the list gives companies in that sector “access to labour that is urgently needed.”

Seed corn companies “traditionally rely on local high school students to fulfil their temporary labour demands in the summer and have had difficulty accessing the number of workers needed, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the CSTA said Nov. 30 in a separate release.

The CSTA said it expects access to labour will “remain a large challenge looking ahead to 2021.”

Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the government said employers and workers who use the TFW program or SAWP are “encouraged to apply early to avoid any delays.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Grain, seed corn growers get access to seasonal worker program appeared first on Farmtario.

Earl Stanley, owner of Stanley’s Olde Maple Farm in Edwards, Ont., says 2020 was looking to be a great year for his business as the first two weekends of March brought larger-than-normal crowds for the farm’s pancake breakfasts.

Syrup production in 2020 was also looking good across the province with sap in good quantity, high quality and easy to filter, says John Williams, executive director with Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association.

But the COVID-19 pandemic has forced producers to close their pancake houses and other aspects of their businesses that draw large crowds.

That’s meant they have had to be creative with new ways of marketing their syrup.

Why it matters: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a halt to many agriculture markets, leaving producers scrambling to develop innovative new ways to market their products.

“The fact that we can’t interact with people, whether that is through business and the farm, or at festivals, that is going to hurt our sales,” says Williams.

The Elmira Maple Syrup Festival and others including the Belmore Maple Syrup Festival, which draw tens of thousands of people to celebrate maple products and community were cancelled.

The more syrup producers rely on the direct consumer interaction, the more it is going to hurt them, says Williams.

March 16 was one of the hardest days for Stanley in his 28 years in business.

“All my staff were excited with what we were doing; we were making great syrup. People were coming and buying and that is what we are here for. Then all of a sudden, I got a whole new outlook on life,” says Stanley.

Not only is the farm sitting on inventory of syrup but also sausage, ham, baked beans and everything else they serve with their weekly breakfasts.

“I have 4,000 to 5,000 people a weekend through the farm. I have been told not to be open. So I have tasked my staff with coming up with other ways to market the products.”

A conference call was held with fellow Ottawa-area sugar bushes and collectively they agreed to close their pancake house doors and will individually work on new opportunities while not stepping on each other’s toes.

“We are not going to have a whole lot of people walking our grounds, but we will try and salvage what we can.”

Stanley Olde Maple Farm has kept its gift shop open on restricted hours and created take-home breakfast meals to get rid of inventory.

“We have baked beans, sausage etc., that we would normally serve here, available to customers to pick up at our gift shop. We are going to push everything we can to add value to what we are doing.”

During a time like this, consumers should try to buy local, says Stanley.

The sales of the first day of take-home breakfast meals on March 21 was a hit for the family.

“We did about a third of sales compared to a normal day, but we were only open three hours instead of the normal six.”

They were able to continue following regulations with numerous hand sanitizers around the store. Customers respected each other’s space and requested store clerks retrieve food from freezers for them.

There are hopes for Stanley’s Olde Maple Farm to continue to develop new product lines, new things to offer and to grow the business.

With the abundance of sap this spring, Stanley says it’s important to find different ways to disperse it among the community, whether in the form of food or in a bottle.

“Next year, when we open up the pancake house, hopefully everyone is still coming for their take-home meals, as well as their pancake breakfast.”

Stanley says he feels lucky that he has staff members that care about his business.

“My staff and customers are coming together and saying, ‘this is a business we want to see survive. How can we help, what can we do to make sure we are here next year?’”

Unfortunately, he has had to reduce his staff, but has given the option for his part-time staff to work for a few hours, then pick-up food for their mom and dad.

“I’ve spent 28 years trying to fill my parking lot and now I have to close the gates. We are in uncharted territory, we don’t know what’s going to happen, but we are going to try and find a way to make the best of it.”

Syrup is the first agricultural product of the season, and Williams says he hopes this pandemic doesn’t carry through affecting other agricultural products, especially those which don’t store as well as maple syrup.

“We hope people will think of us and make an effort to buy some Ontario maple syrup from the store shelf or later when restrictions are lifted,” says Williams.

The post Great maple syrup year overshadowed by coronavirus chaos appeared first on Farmtario.

The federal government on May 1 announced “modernized” beer standards under Canada’s Food and Drug Regulations (FDR) — the rules laying out the requirements to be met by a product labelled, packaged, sold and advertised as beer in Canada.

The FDR updates are expected to allow brewers to “develop new products by using new ingredients and flavouring preparations while maintaining the integrity of beer,” the government said in a release, while offering more “clarity on what constitutes standardized beer.”

For instance, the new rules clarify the term “carbohydrate” and clarify that herbs and spices are allowed. Apart from cereal grains and flavouring preparations, the rules also allow for addition of “honey, maple syrup, fruit, fruit juice or any other source of carbohydrates.”

The updated rules also remove listed processing aids from the beer standard, making it more consistent with most of the 300-plus food standards covered in the FDR which don’t list processing aids, such as antifoaming agents used during manufacturing.

“A modernized beer standard allows Canadian brewers to develop a new range of products that meet the tastes of our consumers,” Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said in the government’s release.

But the FDR will now also require beer labels to declare food allergens, gluten sources and/or added sulphites. Flavouring preparations will also have to be declared, such as, say, “beer with blueberry flavour.”

Such a declaration must either be included in the list of ingredients — which, as with all standardized alcoholic beverages, is voluntary for beer — or be added as a statement, such as, say, “Contains: Sulphites.”

Those requirements “will give consumers assurance that the beer they drink will not pose a risk to their health because of a food allergy or food sensitivity,” Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor said in the same release.

The updates also set a limit of four per cent residual sugar — that is, the sugars left in the product after fermentation is completed. The limit is meant to “distinguish standardized beer from sweeter malt-based beverages.”

‘Distinct’

The updated standard is also expected to reduce “duplication” in the FDR as it removes the standard for ale, stout, porter and malt liquor — which was “virtually identical” to the standard for beer — to have just one standard for all beer styles and types.

The changes to the FDR must be applied starting Dec. 14, 2022. Until then, the government said, Canadian brewers and beer importers “must follow either the previous or the new requirements.”

The requirements for compositional standards under the FDR only apply on products traded interprovincially or imported into Canada.

The new rules “will ensure beer is treated as distinct from other beverage alcohol categories for decades to come,” Luke Harford, president of trade association Beer Canada, said in the sam release. “We are pleased to see that the changes permit the use of new ingredients and recognize beer as a beverage alcohol product that is low in sugars.”

According to the government’s impact analysis statement, the FDR’s beer standards “had not previously undergone a major amendment for at least 30 years” while the industry “had recently been seeking the use of more ingredients than was permitted by the compositional standard.”

Some small craft breweries, the government said, “may experience difficulty in complying with the requirements because of limited financial resources.”

Also, the government granted, some products “may not meet the modernized beer standard and will have to be sold as unstandardized alcoholic beverages and not be represented as beer.”

Also, the government said, the FDR updates could potentially impact trade with other countries that don’t have the same beer compositional standard. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post New federal standard to expand beer ingredient options appeared first on Farmtario.