Season Summaries

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Quebec looks at a near record harvest and record sales

Peter Gregg | June 23, 2026

QUÉBEC CITY —Another whopper of a crop in Quebec this season.

Québec maple producers are celebrating another record-breaking year, but concerns about access to forestland and government policy cast a shadow over an otherwise strong annual meeting.

Delegates gathered May 26 for the annual meeting of the Québec Maple Syrup Producers (QMSP), where leaders reported a 2026 crop totaling 229.5 million pounds of maple syrup and sales that continue to climb both at home and abroad.

“Demand for maple syrup continues to grow rapidly, both in Canada and around the world, with sales at record levels,” QMSP President Luc Goulet told producers.

Processors purchased 202 million pounds of syrup over the past year, including 181.3 million pounds destined for export markets. The sales generated approximately $844 million in revenue.

While the industry continues to expand, Goulet noted that rising production costs are putting pressure on producers. QMSP is currently seeking a price increase through renegotiation of its marketing agreement.

The meeting also marked the 35th anniversary of the province's Joint Plan, a system that coordinates production and marketing across the industry. [ MORE ]

U.S. crop a near record 5.9 million gallons

Peter Gregg | June 11, 2026

LYNDONVILLE, Vt.— U.S. maple producers made more syrup from fewer taps in 2026, pushing national production to a near record 5.88 million gallons despite a slight decline in tapping, according to USDA's annual maple syrup survey.

The United States produced 5.877 million gallons of maple syrup this year, up 3 percent from 5.701 million gallons in 2025.

Meanwhile, the number of taps fell to 16.47 million, down 1 percent from last year and nearly 4 percent below 2024 levels.

Producers averaged 0.357 gallons of syrup per tap in 2026, up from 0.342 gallons in each of the previous two years.

Vermont remained the nation's leading maple-producing state with 3.091 million gallons, accounting for nearly 53 percent of all U.S. production.

The state maintained 8.2 million taps and improved its yield to 0.377 gallons per tap, up from 0.367 gallons a year ago.

"Vermont producers had a strong season and still make over 50 percent of the U.S. maple syrup crop," the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers' Association said following the report's release.

According to USDA data, Vermont maple production has increased 572 percent over the past two decades, making it one of the fastest-growing sectors in the state's agricultural economy.

New York strengthened its hold on second place with 884,000 gallons, up 7 percent from 829,000 gallons in 2025.
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Season Update: Big sap runs in the East and Midwest shutting down

Peter Gregg | March 16, 2026

WESTFIELD, Pa.—Sugarmakers in the Northeast are off to a strong start and in the Midwest, most sugarmakers are pulling taps after a stretch of weather last week that hit the 80s.

“The sap changed a little bit but I think it will come back,” said 65,000-tap sugarmaker Mike Eldridge of Sunrise Maple in Westfield, Pa. Eldridge and his father, Tim, have made 11,500 gallons so far, he said on Saturday including a massive day last week when they made 2,000 gallons in 16 hours.

Down the road, at 80,000-tap Patterson Farms in Sabinsville, Pa. it was a similar story.

“We filled 47 barrels in a 24 hour period,” said owner Terry Patterson. “We got 114,000 gallons of sap in a three day span.”

In Ulysses, Pa. sugarmaker Marshall Hamilton was hoping that the cold snap this weekend would reset the trees.

“The season’s been great,” he told the Maple News. “We hoping for another half.”

In Ohio, they also had a massive run early last week, but the heat wave in the middle of the week, ended the season early for most. [ MORE ]

Quebec crop second biggest on record in 2025

Peter Gregg | June 17, 2025

LONGUEUIL, Que.—The Quebec maple crop came in at 225 million pounds this spring, down only slightly from last year's record breaker of 234 million ppunds, the Quebec maple federation announced.

The federation determined a total harvest of 224.9 million pounds of maple syrup from 55.5 million taps, for an average yield of 4.04 pounds per tap.

That puts the globabl crop as the second biggest on record, after it was announced yesterday that the U.S. crop was also its second biggest ever.

Meanwhile, the Quebec federation announced it will allocate another 7 million new taps this year to respond to what it said were the ever-rising demand for maple products. This expansion will increase Quebec's average annual production by about 25 million pounds of maple syrup.

"...demand for maple syrup and our other products continues to grow both at home and abroad, and the Strategic Reserve is still below capacity," said QMSP President Luc Goulet.

The new taps will go to new start-ups and producers wishing to expand their operations, the federation said.

They must go into produciton within the next three production years. [ MORE ]

U.S. maple crop comes in strong at 5.7 million gallons

Peter Gregg | June 16, 2025

RUPERT, Vt.—The 2025 U.S. maple syrup crop was down only slightly from last year, with producers making 5.7 million gallons, compared with 5.8 million last year, according to the USDA statistics service.

Vermont led the way this season with a total of 3.06 million gallons produced, down from 3.1 million gallons last year.

Runner-up states were New York with 829,000 gallons, Wisconsin at 556,000 and Maine with 549,000 gallons, according to USDA.

This would be the first time that Wisconsin placed in the top three in syrup production.

In yields per tap, Wisconsin was number one with 0.463 gallons produced per tap, followed by Vermont at 0.367 gallons per tap average and Maine at 0.312, the USDA reported. [ MORE ]

U.S. maple syrup crop predicted about average

Peter Gregg | May 27, 2025

SWANTON, Vt.—The U.S. syrup crop should come in about average or slightly below, based on interviews with producers and packers.

While some states had bad years, like Ohio and Indiana, others had barn busters, like Maine, especially on the Golden Road.

“We’re up 15 percent over last year,” said 11,000-tap producer Rodney Hall of East Dixfield, Vt. who attended the dealer open house weekend in Franklin County, Vt. at the end of April.

Hall was one of many producers who experienced cooperative sugaring weather this season.

Henry Lambright of Brown City, Mich. said he hit almost a half gallon of syrup per tap.

“We made 594 gallons on 1,200 taps,” he told The Maple News. [ MORE ]

Michigan producers wiped out by ice storm

Peter Gregg | April 10, 2025

GAYLORD, Mich.—Michigan sugarmakers are rallying around fellow producers who were hit two weeks ago with a generational ice storm, trying to help them salvage a maple season.

“We have been very blessed,” said Jen Richards, who estimates that she and her husband Troy lost nearly their entire sugarwoods in the storm, the 2 inches of ice snapping all the crowns to the ground, leaving only the stems.

They have a 17,000 tap operation near the Mackinac Bridge that connects the Upper and Lower peninsulas of the state.

Over the past week, Richards said upwards of 100 people—other sugarmakers from Michigan, a large group from the Christian Disaster Fund and neighbors—cleared more than 172 miles of sap lines.

Believe it or not, the Richards are are still hoping to make more syrup this season.

The trees still have sap in the trunks, even through the crowns are gone.

“We will see what we can eke out,” she told The Maple News. [ MORE ]

Season Update #6: Crop coming in about average or better

Peter Gregg | April 4, 2025

MERRILL, Wisc.—Sugarmakers in the U.S. are closing out their seasons in most locations, and crop sizes are coming in about average or better.

"It's looking pretty decent," said Joel Oelke, a sugarmaker in Merrill, Wisc. and a rep for Leader H2O. "If the weather holds out we should be at a full crop in about a week."

Bulk prices at some locations in the Northeast have already risen slightly, according to some sugarmakers who have recently sold syrup.

Official prices from the big packers have not been officially announced yet.

In the Northeast, sugarmakers were enjoying mostly decent crops.

Don Russell in Rome, Pa. said his crop size came in a little lower than hoped, but still about average, and the syrup grades ran toward dark.

"We had darker color than normal," he told The Maple News this week.
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