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.

The new allocation of taps follows similar seven-million tap issues in 2021 and 2023, adding to a potential total production capacity in Québec of 64 million taps. That would represent a five-year increase of 50%.

“Our 2025 sales forecast is that it will be an exceptional year for maple syrup, so much so that this year’s large harvest will succeed only in just serving current market demand. We might even have to call on the supplies in the Strategic Reserve, and those stocks are still on the low side. We assessed the various scenarios—including the precarious trade relations with the USA—and we came to a single conclusion: we have to add taps or risk a short-term disruption of supply,” Goulet said.

The Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve holds just over 40 million pounds.