Following record year, New Brunswick maple syrup producers call for more land

Maple syrup producers in New Brunswick enjoyed a record-breaking 2022; However, industry leaders are warning that without more land, the growth is capped.

For David Prosser, the co-owner of JPS Maple Limited, last year proved to be “pretty good” right across the province.

“Everyone kind of said the same thing last year, that it was a record season everywhere,” Prosser told Global News in an interview.

A contributing factor to the success was a “perfect winter,” said Prosser.

“We had a good snow base, the ground froze early in the year, so the trees were able to go dormant and start their sugar making process.”

According to Statistics Canada, producers nationwide tapped their way into the record books.

Canadian maple producers harvested a record 17.4 million gallons in 2022, an increase of 53.8 per cent from 2021.

In New Brunswick, 810.9 thousand gallons were harvested, an increase of 3.2 per cent from the year before.

Louise Poitras, the executive director of the New Brunswick Maple Syrup Association, believes the industry benefitted from aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

If the industry wants to continue to grow in New Brunswick, she said, they will need more land.

“We’ve capped the 14,400 hectares that’s been allocated by the province, so as we go forward, definitely if we want to move forward, we’ll need some new hectares,” Poitras said.

Producers have been waiting over two years for the provincial government to respond to a request for an additional 12,000 hectares of Crown forest.

According to Poitras, this would allow producers to grow, or in some cases enter the industry, but the government has been “a wall of silence.”

“It takes at least two years to prepare the land in order to harvest it, so we should’ve been doing that two years ago, so we would be ready by now.”

“We could almost double our production, and the demand is there, so why not bring it in and take advantage of it.”

For Prosser, opening up more Crown land for the maple syrup industry is a necessity for growth, but he would like to see the land be spread across New Brunswick.

“The guys need more land. We got to grow. If we don’t have more taps, our markets can’t get bigger, so I’m all for them exploiting more crown land, I’d just like to see it all through the province.”

As for 2023, he said the weather has not been optimal, but you never know until you drill the first tap.

— with files from the Canadian Press.

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