News from the Maple Industry
by: Mary Fogle Douglass

As I write this, I've just returned from the summer meeting of the IMSI in Newport, Vermont. While there are not a lot of new items in the hopper right now, I feel very good about the continued work of the IMSI and the maple industry as a whole.

Keeping Maple "Pure"

The IMSI continues to be an aggressive watchdog against adulterated syrup. As an organization, we have set a sizeable budget for adulteration testing and are continuing to collect and test ransom samples from around the world. Fortunately, there have been no adulterated syrups among the samples tested since we began this past winter. That is encouraging news for the industry as a whole. Not only are we finding maple products from around the world to be pure-good news in itself-but many in the industry feel that our testing is at least partly responsible for those good reports, since the threat of getting caught acts as a real deterrent to would-be "cheats".

The IMSI Board has also been working with the industry's equipment manufacturers on an Equipment Certification Program that would set standards and guidelines for all newly produced sugaring equipment. That is ongoing work. More recently, we have been discussing syrup storage issues related to product quality. Particularly with regard to bulk wholesale syrup storage, there are a wide variety of barrels and containers in use. And we are seeing more advertisements for new products. At our most recent meeting, we allocated funds towards acquiring and testing bulk storage containers so that the industry as a whole will know that the containers in use are the highest quality food grade containers available.

Also, new this year is the introduction of the "Maple Mark", a program and logo developed by the Quebec syrup industry in conjunction with their government to indicate and promote a pure product. While not an IMSI program, it is another step by some of our industry's key players to make and keep maple products pure. The program includes $1 million dollars per year for a three-year period to market syrup produced and sold under the "Maple Mark" logo.

1999 Crop Report

The final tallies are in for the 1999 production season. The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released its maple syrup report last month, showing a 2% increase in overall production in the U.S. last year. The total U.S. production for 1999 was 1.18 million gallons. Michigan ranks 6th with 73,000 gallons produced. That is well above the 55,000 produced in 1998, but below our 1997 production of 75,000 gallons. Production in the state varied widely from region to region.

Representatives from Quebec reported a Province crop estimate of 68 million pounds, or about 6.2 million gallons. It is estimated that the world crop, including all producing States and Provinces of the U.S. and Canada, in 1999, is between 83 and 85 million pounds, (7.7 million gallons). Most of those present at the meeting believe this supply is very close to current world demand for pure maple syrup. While we don't see large excesses of syrup through this year, an adequate crop should continue to keep prices—bulk and wholesale—fairly stable.