An early start to the season and a growing export market could be pointing towards some sweet success for New Brunswick's maple syrup industry.
David Briggs, president of the North American Maple Syrup Council, says a mild winter has allowed the sap to start flowing.
“Many guys started tapping early this season, February, which is kind of unheard of,” says Briggs.
Mackenzie Hiltz is one of those people. He’s started tapping trees outside his Petitcodiac home and has already produced 11 gallons of maple syrup.
That’s more than double what he made at this time last year.
“For me it's running very well because I'm at a lower elevation, so the temperatures have worked quite well for me,” says Hiltz.
Ideal production temperatures are minus five at night to plus five in the day.
Briggs says as the season progresses, the syrup changes.
“Usually the syrup comes out lighter at the first of the season and a lot of people like to make that good, extra light syrup to start. As the season goes along, it'll darken,” Briggs says.
In the year 2000, New Brunswick's maple syrup industry did business to the tune of $3 million. Last year, producers bottled 551,000 gallons of maple syrup worth $40 million.
Half the production is exported with the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Japan being the largest buyers of the sweet syrup.
But there's more to sap than just syrup. To stand out, David Briggs has diversified the type of maple products he makes.
“I've had to expand my different product line to sell product because our market is basically flooded. We have a lot of maple syrup here in New Brunswick,” he says.
And with an early start to the season, there could be more syrup this year than ever before.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Jonathan MacInnis.
