2018 Bulk Price

Selling retail in small mom and pop stores is a whole different animal. Selling to your local 2 to 3 store operation is fine as long as you keep him fed with syrup. Now go down to the larger retailer grocery store that has a buyer and see how they operate. Now approach the multi state grocery and fork over $25,000.00 just to keep your product.......then miss a delivery and see what happens. Its a whole different roller coaster your riding.

I bulk mine because I don't have the time or desire to sell it that way. I have a real job that pays the bills and in a good year without big mistakes I do well.

I sell all of mine retail and I only have 1 retail outlet I use, most of mine is thru my website, the rest is from my house or the sugarhouse. While I no longer have 1300+ taps, but I sold it all retail then too, but had 1 more retail outlet. My current outlet sends me an email when I need to restock, otherwise I just go in once a month to collect my check and restock. The beauty of that one is that my space only costs $8.50 a month and no percentage of sales. While the slowest 4 months look very poor, the other 8 more than make up for it. Last Nov and Dec. I got an email for more bourbon barrel aged syrup weekly and I put 48 out each time minus the 2 or 3 that were left from my last filling. That was filling my space for the BB syrup, I also had a facing or 2 of about 10-12 other syrup containers.
Until I retired June 17, 2016 I also had a day job, plus a blueberry farm to work, and re-stocking the shelves never got old. Still have that for now.

Holy smokes first time in 6 years the price went up .10 for the top three grades at bascoms.....they may just have saved me from going somewhere else because I feel they tend to grade darker than what's in front of them contributing to .10 less per lb.........

yea organic went up .10 also. The funny thing is the packers have to wait for Canada to be about done before they can set the price for VERMONT ORGANIC. You know the whole pricing thing is a scam.

Spud

Spud, are you saying organic premium is now .20 instead of .10?

You can not have a rational discussion if all you do is spout crazy talk. I will agree I say some goofy things but to throw mud against the wall doesn't show much intelligence. Show me some facts to back up what you say and Ill listen.

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Originally Posted by lew

Spud, are you saying organic premium is now .20 instead of .10?

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No I'm saying the price went up .10 from last season on organic. It appear the price went up the same .10 for non organic also. Vermont packers should not need to wait till Canada is done their season to set the organic price of VERMONT organic. Vermont organic or any states organic should be priced differently. In my opinion the price of organic should be .50 above non organic. Much paperwork and aggravation goes into being organic. We are inspected from top to bottom in order to be organic and there are fees to pay for this cirtificate. Most non organic operations are not inspected here in Vermont. I'm not saying organic is a better syrup I'm just saying that it's a safer choice because their operations meet all health/safety standards. As of now almost anyone can sell bulk non organic syrup to a packer without having any inspections to their operations. Most non organic syrup is of top quality made with pride. I think it's safe to say some nasty makes it to the packers. That nasty May look and taste ok but the operation that made it could be less then par.

Spud

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Originally Posted by spud

Most non organic operations are not inspected here in Vermont. I'm not saying organic is a better syrup I'm just saying that it's a safer choice because their operations meet all health/safety standards. As of now almost anyone can sell bulk non organic syrup to a packer without having any inspections to their operations. Most non organic syrup is of top quality made with pride. I think it's safe to say some nasty makes it to the packers. That nasty May look and taste ok but the operation that made it could be less then par.

Spud

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This is what I have always said, could never figure out how Vermont could build such a image and not have to be inspected?? We must be inspected to sell to a packer in Wisconsin. I think its just a matter of time and vermont will have to toe the line as well. We vacationed in Vermont in 2003 and fully one half of the sugarhouses were dives IMO. Sure changed the way I viewed things from there on out.

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Originally Posted by spud

No I'm saying the price went up .10 from last season on organic. It appear the price went up the same .10 for non organic also. Vermont packers should not need to wait till Canada is done their season to set the organic price of VERMONT organic. Vermont organic or any states organic should be priced differently. In my opinion the price of organic should be .50 above non organic. Much paperwork and aggravation goes into being organic. We are inspected from top to bottom in order to be organic and there are fees to pay for this cirtificate. Most non organic operations are not inspected here in Vermont. I'm not saying organic is a better syrup I'm just saying that it's a safer choice because their operations meet all health/safety standards. As of now almost anyone can sell bulk non organic syrup to a packer without having any inspections to their operations. Most non organic syrup is of top quality made with pride. I think it's safe to say some nasty makes it to the packers. That nasty May look and taste ok but the operation that made it could be less then par.

Spud

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I can't speak to your other points of being organic as it would deviate from the topic but a premium does not exist to reimburse someone for their extra paperwork. The premium exists because there is a market for organic syrup. It's all about supply and demand. If there was a shortage of organic syrup, the price would go up. There seems to be a fair balance between what is needed and what is being supplied so packers give the slight premium so that level continues. If they needed more and couldn't find it, the price would go up to encourage producers to go through the certification process so there would be more on the market.

I think the reason that you have to wait until the Quebec season ends to set the Vermont organic price is that they produce 70% of the maple syrup. I think the market has a certain need for organic syrup and if Vermont had a bad season and Quebec had a good season, packers would just use the Quebec organic because consumers are shopping based on price for the most part.

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Originally Posted by blissville maples

Holy smokes first time in 6 years the price went up .10 for the top three grades at bascoms.....they may just have saved me from going somewhere else because I feel they tend to grade darker than what's in front of them contributing to .10 less per lb.........

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I've had it go both ways at Bascoms, it depends on who they have looking into the Lovibond.

One time I brought in all Golden and Amber syrup because that is all that I make and it was all graded Amber or Dark. The guy had the nerve to say that it didn't have much flavor. I tasted the jug that he said didn't have much flavor and he was wrong, it had an excellent Amber flavor. I looked at my slip and found that he had graded it as Dark and it wasn't even close. When I questioned him about it he said that if I didn't like it I could sell it somewhere else. If I thought it was dark I would have kept it to sell to my customers.

The last two times that I brought syrup in it went the other way. The time before last I brought in a mix of Golden and Amber and it was graded as such with more of it being graded as Golden than what I had brought in. The last time that I brought syrup in which was about a month ago all of it graded Amber except for one 5 gallon jug which was right on 75% with my Hanna grader. The guy that did the testing must have looked at that one first. He graded it as Golden and then went through the rest of my twelve 5 gallon jugs using just the turkey baster and not the Lovibond and graded it all as Golden.

Bascom's always goes by the price that Canada sets and gives us the lowest price that they can going by the dollar exchange rate. Bruce has told me that he won't pay US producers more than what he can buy syrup from Canada for.

It's good that the price went up a little and it could go up again in the fall. Bruce says that he has enough syrup on hand to last until October.