Repackaging Bulk

[SeanD]

This year I will have the unfortunate combination of lots of customers and a short sugaring season. I'm considering buying bulk and repackaging it.

What's the general consensus on labeling and communicating any or part of this to my customers. Many of them like buying my products because it is local. Should I tell them up front I'm using another farm's syrup? Do I change my label? How have people handled this?

Thanks,
Sean

[Dennis H.]

Unless you have some agreement with the person who you bought the bulk syrup from I would not use their name.
You will be the last person to ensure that the syrup is of good quality and packaged correctly so you should have your name on the jug/bottle.

As for letting your customers know who's syrup it really is? That is your call. Yes you did not collect the sap, boil it down, but in the end you have to check and make sure that it meets your own standards for good maple syrup. You have to be sure that it is of correct density, filtered properly and bottled in a way that your customers expect. So is it really yours? In a way it is yours.

[Dave Y]

Sean, you are under no obligation to tell customers that you did not make the syrup. Your customers buy from you because they like your product,and you are local. Make sure the syrup you buy meets your standards.

[Big_Eddy]

The only caveat to above is that in Ontario at least if the syrup was produced in a different province (or state) then the labelling must declare that. I can't recall the specifics.

[Indiana-Jones]

What are you going to say if someone asks questions about the syrup's production or your bush.... and on and on? Do you come clean and explain you had a poor crop and had to buy bulk from who knows who.

My cent and a half worth, if syrup sales are that large part of your income and you can't take the short fall, bottle and label yours as always, bump up the price to a premium. Buy the bulk, label it as processed by you to your standards and give your customers a choice. Explain the situation and I bet you come out a head in the end with a clean conscious.

[Scribner's Mountain Maple]

I have faced the same dilemma. Should I tell my customers that I had to buy syrup to meet their order. Well I did once, with a near gasp of disappointment from my customer. I won't be making that mistake twice.

I suggest to reheat, re-filter and then can, that way you will have your seal of approval on it. Ideally you can buy from someone you know too.

I believe in what others have already stated, that you trying to grow a business, you are providing a local product, and it should be your name on it. You can work to increase your production so you won't have to buy in the future. Sometimes you take the customers when they are at your door step, not just when you have the product to sell them.

[jmayerl]

I could never sit at a farmers market and talk to people about the pride I take in collecting fresh sap from MY trees, boiling the same day, and taking great care to sell the best product I can make; and then in the next breath say that I bought this from a wholesaler and just bottled it. I have sold a few gallons as bulk when I had nowhere to store the syrup last year. It was "the worse" of any the syrup I had. Everyone has different standards so to each there own.

[markct]

I fourtanatly have so far never had to buy in bulk, my production has increased more than I have put effort into increasing my sales so I have been the one to sell bulk to a few others that needed it, but heres my thoughts on the situation if the day comes that I do have to buy bulk to supplement my own production, I wouldn't go advertising the fact, yet if someone asked if I make all the syrup I sell I would say "well we make a lot of syrup but occasionaly have a bad season since we are of course at the mercy of mother nature so at times do end up purchasing syrup from other farms as well" I think that is much better than some producers I have seen who will look a customer in the eye and say they make every drop of syrup they sell, when that's not at all the case and they buy more bulk each year than they produce.

[Russell Lampron]

In NH if you made the syrup yourself you label it "produced by" with your name and address. If you repackaged it the label has to say "processed by" with your name and address. I find that most customers never read the label anyway and I would only tell them it was repackaged if they ask.

[markct]

If you look at the website of Brown family farms which is a brand of Bascoms, they say it very well with a statement we partner with hundreds of independently owned family farms to bring you quality maple syrup. I think thats a perfect way to say it without saying we buy bulk and repackage it, nothing hidden or lies told just well phrased