this bulk price thread is starting to take an odd turn in direction...
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this bulk price thread is starting to take an odd turn in direction...
Talked to guy in Vermont that talked to Bruce bascom himself and Bruce told him the price will be same as last year.
I don't know, I think it really depends on the season this year. Mr. Bascom and Mr. Roth can say all they want, we could have a 2012 season and what would people say? Roth is a buyer to resell syrup, why would he be calling out east looking for tractor trailer loads?Quote:
Originally Posted by S.S.S
Roth buys syrup and sells to companies that manufacture food products that put maple syrup in there stuff.Quote:
Originally Posted by markcasper
The Leader rep also told me that you'd be amazed of the number of tractor trailer loads of syrup that go from the midwest, to the northeast and back or vice versa that either are looking for a home, or don't have a home.
Price is not the same as last year. Call Bascoms yourself. 603-835-6361Quote:
Originally Posted by S.S.S
So is it currently higher or lower? Mostly, this time of the year, the price is stable until the upcoming season is finished.Quote:
Originally Posted by Thad Blaisdell
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Please bring me some popcorn!Quote:
Originally Posted by Scm
He's alive! First post in.......maybe two years? I see you tried calling a few days ago. I'll catch up this week. Almost done tapping now so I'll have time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Thad Blaisdell
I'm thinking its all based on SUPPLY and DEMAND. I will admit I come from a different perspective than most producers. If I was in it JUST for the money I would have quit long ago. I keep upgrading my equipment to meet industry standards and for my own satisfaction. I'm just a small drop in the bucket of this massive FUNGIBLE ocean of syrup. But every year I wake up in the spring with great enthusiasm hoping for a great season with all my upgrades in place. I make as much syrup that mother nature and my high performance upgrades will allow. I also hope I have a market for what I make and that it will lesson the burden on my investment.
Now ain't that a hoot I keep using the word investment. I made the mistake of pointing out to my wife that I INVESTED in new counter tops Stainless Steel appliances and a top of the line stove but her cooking hasn't improved one bit. Guy's did I say something wrong because she sure is acting funny.
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I did and that is what I was told from the horse himself. Maybe we are talking to different people.Quote:
Originally Posted by Thad Blaisdell
Price is down a dime per pound across the board from what it ended up last year.
It wont stay there for long....try this for fun...tell them you have 75 bbls and see what the price is.....makes a difference if you have more than a couple of bbls.....but from what i hear its a great time to expand,,,add some tech.get more efficant and all that....ha ha
I like it when the equipment dealer says "buy your equipment from me and I will buy your syrup first". It works until he gets a new best friend.
I would think that would be counter productive for a dealer that is also a syrup wholesaler. Now if they only have room for only so much syrup then yea it would be a problem.
Just the other day I watched a video on YouTube of a interview of a guy named Glenn Goodrich, he is over seeing a install in Eden, Vermont, 200 thousand taps by 2022, making 150 barrels of syrup a day when trees are running full tilt! IMHO that should go along ways toward solving the world wide shortage of maple syrup plus stabilize the price of BULK Syrup at the same time! Maybe he can retail every gallon at the local farmers market, of coarse he will make a half a gallon syrup per tap or be considered a failure by his fellow syrup makers. Just think 100000 gallons of syrup!
Mark 220 Maple
Those are his. He leased the land for 30 years. He will have 4 evaporators running at once when done. They got about 50,000 done in Eden for this year. that makes about 80,000 for him this year.
he is alive, he is finally getting around to the HE injection.Quote:
Originally Posted by Walling's Maple Syrup
talked to him yesterday, he sold 10 more gallons at 30 each. 7 dollars more a gallon than bulk price GO THAD GO! He said he doesn't care whose customers he steals as long as the money ends up in his pocket!
I have a 2x6 inferno with a 30 ft stack. its airtight with a fan and am getting way too much draft. any suggestions?
And that is exactly why it is “The Great Race to The Bottom.”Quote:
Originally Posted by Flat Lander Sugaring
You should post this in the evaporator forum and make your on post with your question and not steal a thread.Quote:
Originally Posted by earl dakers
Yesterday I took a ride to a local dealer to pick up a few supplies. They have a store selling maple syrup and bakery items as part of their maple supply business. Amongst all the syrup was your typical array of maple whoopee pies, maple candies, maple confections etc..... Almost all the confections and home baked items contained artificial maple flavoring. How in heck are we supposed to expand our industry, promote an all natural product and promote real maple syrup if we don't use it in our own products?! It's hypocritical at best, deceitful at the least.
We run a small farm store selling beef, pork, eggs and homemade items. We refuse to sell anything that isn't "real" anything. My wife makes and sells maple salsa, whoopee pies, candy, cream, cookies etc...etc.... All of which is made with real syrup, no artificial.
The buying public isn't going to trust nor believe us that real maple syrup is best if we're selling products made with fake syrup. We cut our own throats by not walking the walk.
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I talked to him the other day. He told me about the helium injection. I think hes on to something. Or maybe he's on something?! Haha.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flat Lander Sugaring
Stop trying to get everyone riled up with the $30/ gallon thing. You like to start trouble. It's in your nature:lol:
It wasn't that many years ago that bulk syrup was selling for far less money than it is today. We sure liked seeing it in the upper $2 a pound range but i can remember when it was in the low $1 to under that. I remember when I got $1.30 a pound and was happy and now $2 - $2.10 a pound and people are complaining.
Part of the problem there is that the cost of making syrup has climbed so much faster than the price. Likely when you got $1.30 a pound the cost to make it was less than half what it is today. To be relatively equal we'd need to get $2.60 today.
I still believe retailing far more of your own syrup is the answer, and don't do that by cutting the price you sell it for to be below everyone else, that will not help anyone except the consumer who pays less than the cost to make the syrup. That's a recipe for bankruptcy.
$1.35 / lb. for light amber in 1990, unfiltered. I recall 1991 (below dark amber, good or bad taste was .50 / lb., unfiltered, the following year that grade was .60 / lb. Nothing was ever filtered, they scraped the sediment out of the milkcans, wanted it all! Now its a .30/lb dockage. Figuring this in, the price we are getting is way worse now when taking inflation into account. Year 1996 had LA-$1.50, MA-$1.40, DA-1.30, below DA-$1.10 all per lb, all unfiltered prices. I have the slips to prove.Quote:
Originally Posted by ScottP
Figuring amber rich, MA current price at $1.70 / lb. unfiltered, that has only been an anemic .30/lb increase in 22 years.
you make syrup for the bulk price weather you like it or not. selling syrup is something else, you do not need to make syrup to retail it in jugs.Quote:
Originally Posted by maple flats
Very Very True. Something I think many people just do not understand. Maple Flats I would have to disagree with your (recipe for bankruptcy) comment. If a person sells his syrup for bulk price and makes 4000 Gallons per season he makes (around) $2.10LB for a total of $92,400. If he sells his syrup for $30.00 a gallon even after the jug cost of $2.10 he still makes $4.80 more per gallon. 4000x4.80= $19,200. I would say that making that extra $19,200 will save him from getting into bankruptcy.Quote:
Originally Posted by hand drill
The real reason people don't like seeing someone lower their prices is because they don't want to lose sales of their own. smaller operations spend way more money per tap to get set up. If they don't get their $40-70 per gallon they could be filling for bankruptcy. The big operations will always have and always will have the upper hand on the little guys. The little guys selling syrup make up about 1-2% of the overall syrup sales worldwide. the syrup prices have already dropped to $9.99 a quart in places like Cosco. If the packers see those sales going up then they could drop the price we see in our grocery stores. Right now we are seeing $17.99-$22.00 a quart. As soon as we start seeing syrup sell for $9.99 a quart in the grocery store the little guy will be forced out of the sugaring business. I would hate to see this happen but things like this happen in farming and all businesses every year. So the guy selling for $30.00 a gallon just gave himself a raise. That raise could be giving him and his family a vacation to Hawaii or maybe pay for college. He may be hurting the guy trying to sell for $45 but he is not doing anything wrong. In my eyes he is doing everything right ( for his family ).
Spud
Well said spud! Price is ultimately the biggest factor in whether your going to sell syrup or not and how much. If you have a quality syrup and a low price, that is even better. In the end, an added benefit to lower prices should be increased demand and sales. What continues to baffle me is the number of people that have gotten into the business the past 10-15 years. It just astounds me! Its hard work, you work with and in rough weather frequently, the inspection requirements are escalating upwards every year, trying to keep a full time job and sugar is beyond not easy! I don't get it? Maybe these lower bulk prices will start thinning the herd?Quote:
Originally Posted by spud
Although no producer likes margin erosion, it is important to remember the main competition for consumer wallet is not simply other maple products, it is the cheaper sweetener alternatives. That has been the case since the sugarcane boom. Lower maple syrup shelf prices will help sell product against cheaper, and readily available alternatives.
In the pure maple world your producer neighbor(s) down the road trying to sell to the same target audience IS your immediate competition! In a broad scope, yes the competition is cheaper sweetener alternatives. Since the prices of maple will realistically never get as low as alternatives, its unfair to assume this into every equation.Quote:
Originally Posted by southfork
I agree, there are microcosms of competition, that is true in any niche. I was referring to those mentioning Walmart and Costco as their reference.
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Like I said, for right or wrong, the consumer has plenty of cheaper alternatives to use as a sweetener. Sugarcane is a mighty business, Belglade, Florida is alive and well, was there last month. The maple industry has it's work cut out for it. It is always difficult to market against alternatives, especially when they are offered much cheaper, and by companies able to penetrate large markets.
I am in no way saying this is good for maple, in fact it is bad. But, the realities remain that there are sweetener alternatives to maple which are cheaper and more readily available........... and that is our main obstacle to market penetration.
Anyone who is buying their syrup at Cosco or Walmart is not my customer. The folks that buy our syrup also buy our eggs, beef, salsa, pork, honey, etc. We don't compete on price, we compete on quality and local.
Just a thought. Why would some one add on 200,000 taps with a 30 year lease if they didn't think they could move it at a profit. Obviously there are economies of scale working with those numbers. But, no market is guaranteed, especially for 30 years.
If the price drops to $9.99 a quart in ALL the local stores then even your customers ( might ) make the switch. That is if your charging more then the $9.99. There will always be some loyal customers that will buy your syrup no matter the price difference. But that kind of market only makes up about 1% of the overall maple sales worldwide.Quote:
Originally Posted by Atgreene
Spud