2018 Bulk Price

......all of it and then some. This is whats known as the race to the bottom. I've been predicting it for 2 years now. Maple producers mostly sell in bulk, at the prevailing price, set by the packers, and higher up the chain ,the Quebec federation......Keep adding taps, and we're headed in the direction of dairy!
Parker, if you're over my way, give me a holler, I'll buy you a beer and we can talk economics.

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Originally Posted by markcasper

The RO's and vacuum tubing of today have ultimately brought us to this point.

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True story.

While I'm a small producer it is not because that is all I can sell, it is because I have slowed down due to my age. I do not try to scalp the customer, but I sell at what I feel is the fairest compromise in price for the customer and me. If you want to see my prices, the link is at the bottom of my signature at the bottom of this post.
My sales gain strength every year as more and more of my customers tell their friends and associates about my syrup. I do not buy the comment that modern tubing systems and vacuum have created an over supply. I think we all just need to add to our customer base. Since about 75% of my sales are online and shipped, my neighbor is also not my enemy either. We are all in this together, but not all of us are doing enough to expand our markets. Many don't even try to retail and sell everything or at least the lion's share of their production to bulk buyers. That, coupled with the Canadian exchange rate have cut the bulk prices.
Bruce Bascom says in his catalog that world wide syrup use is growing by 7% every year, what are you doing to make your retail sales grow by 7% or more? There lies the issue.

TARIFF CANADIAN SYRUP 65% and any packing company they buy here in the US!!

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We've never wholesaled, retail it all at $60 / gallon. We've been building a customer base for over 100 years and only making what we need. I'd be foolish to invest more money to be able to sell wholesale. My time is better spent working other parts of my farm that generate more profit than $2/lb syrup.

Radio Silence.

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Originally Posted by amaranth farm

Which is why it would seem many producers are crying poor, when they slit their own throats by financing expansions during a market that has a discernible downward trend in price per unit. Your analysis is spot on. I nominate you for a Nobel prize in Maple Economics. Producers should be holding fast, if not reducing production ever so slightly and trying to expand markets, which would put pressure on correcting the chase to the bottom. How can we expand a market for something that no-one needs for survival, or is essentially a luxury item?

Glass, glass baby.

There are those hereabouts that will proselytize up and down that the buying public has no use for glass and that 99 and 44/100ths of their production flies off the shelf in plastic. The public doesn't buy glass because they are not given the choice, not because they will not purchase it.

The food industry has waged jihad on glass for decades, for no more than trying to maximize profits through reduced shipping costs. Who cares if plastic is measurably worse for the environment, leaches compounds heretofore un-consumed by humans, or that it imparts of flavors into the profile of the product contained after a time. This inculcation and dumbing down of the consumer has also filtered into producers. Why?

Although I am still shooting for the 100 gallon season, I package in 100% glass. I charge $25 for a litre and $15 for 1/2 litres. Not once last season did a customer say, "geesze it looks great and what not, but can you match the price of that guy who packages in plastic?" Rather the response was, more often than naught, "W0w! you can see the product and it looks beautiful." I sold out my entire production, and ended up having to buy syrup for my own consumption.

This is a low hanging fruit and I am quite surprised more producers are not trying this as a strategy to increase direct sales.

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I realize what you are saying! I have not sold one gallon in plastic this past year. I bottle all glass, though I have a few plastic for "just in case". My customers do not want plastic. I have noticed over the years that the New England states push alot of plastic, while here in Wisconsin it is primarily glass, and especially for quart and pint sizes. I have never seen a bush from Vermont advertise a quart glass decanter, while in WI the mainstay is a quart glass decanter. Not anything scientific with my findings other than its the truth.

I cannot believe that you don't think vacuum tubing and RO's have not contributed to an oversupply!? Since purchasing an RO I have double/tripled my production with vacuum pipeline, cut my hours in the sugarhouse by 2/3rd's, along with getting rid of any hired help (actually can't find any.) This kind of production before was simply unattainable. There wasn't enough hours in a day, no way! Kind of baffles me that you wouldn't agree?
As for your neighbor, I guess I should have rephrased it by saying your neighbor is your competition, maybe not for you, but the majority of us would fall into this category. So Bascom says world sales are increasing 7% per year. Depending on the source, production has increased 10 - 15% per year. That is a problem. I do agree with others, there should be something of a tariff put on all this Canadian syrup flooding our markets. Its time to start putting the U.S. first again instead of being a dumping ground for the rest of the world! I guess in the end, supply and demand will iron everything out and there will certainly be many losers, especially in the U.S.

I was told prices are dropping another .20cents this year. Butternut has 18,000 barrels of syrup in warehouses right now. As the world market for syrup increases 7% a year, the bulk price of syrup decreases 10%. It's still a good time to get into sugaring but hold off on those big AG loans. I know a handful of people that have these Ag loans and their in a panic every year just to make the yearly payment. When your day job has to help pay for your Ag loan payment you know your in trouble.

Spud