No surplus left anywhere in the world

“There’s no surplus left anywhere in the world,” not petroleum , maple syrup.This is what Sen. Schumer is talking about ."Everybody is waiting for this year’s crop.”Restaurants in Vermont are rationing maple syrup and not allowing unlimited pouring. As the state’s annual harvest gets under way this week, restaurants and shops are paying as much as $70 a gallon for syrup, said Rick Marsh, president of the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers’ Association. That’s up from about $40 last year, he said.

Although Vermont may lead the nation in maple syrup production New York State politicians are taking the lead in using the current high price of syrup to reintroduce legislation suggested in 2008.
The plan would provide for access to private land and to create centralized storage and bottling plants .Incredibly they are hoping for the $65 million dollar industry to increase sales by 400 percent! Although Schumer had no statistics for Vermont he did say “Listen to this, we have 289 million maple trees in New York, but we tap less than one-half of 1 percent of them. It’s a large, untapped resource, shall we say.”
Sen. Schumer, newly appointed Sen.Gillibrand and upstate NY Rep John McHugh have proposed legislation to help small producers nationwide.
Maple TAP Act which would direct the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a program under which states may apply for grants to encourage owners and operators of privately-held farm and ranch land with maple trees to voluntarily make such land available for maple tapping.

Quebec, the OPEC of maple syrup accounts for more than 70 percent of the global supply, 5.35 million gallons last year. Vermont, the domestic leader, produced 500,000 gallons. New York, which had a strong year, produced 322,000 gallons. Quebec produces more because it taps over a third of its trees. Vermont taps 2.1 percent.

While supply has dwindled, international demand has increased, largely because of marketing efforts by the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, a trade group representing 7,300 companies. The focus has been on Asia, and Japan now accounts for 10 percent of Canada’s maple syrup exports, said Geneviève C. Béland, a marketing executive with the federation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/dining/11maple.html?ref=nyregion
http://schumer.senate.gov/new_website/record.cfm?id=309291
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601093&sid=ah5DD99EXVkw&refer=home