Actually, the bulk price as set by the Federation hasn't gone down. What has changed over the past few years is the Canadian to U.S. currency exchange rate.
The top line (blue) in the figure below is the Federation price. The middle line (red) is the U.S. syrup price based upon the Federation price with the U.S. exchange factored in (exchange rate is shown by the green line). Basically, because of the exchange rate, U.S. producers had to sell their syrup at $1.50/lb (in U.S. $) in 2001 to compete with Canadian syrup at $2.40/lb (Canadian $).
The shortage of syrup in 2008, the parity in the currency from about 2007 onward, and the increased use of technology (vacuum and better spout/tubing sanitation) that resulted in higher yields have fueled tremendous growth in the U.S. industry. We are currently seeing a slight softening of the Canadian currency relative to the strong U.S. dollar (Canadian $ is worth $0.88 U.S. today). If you can predict where it'll go from here, then you're better off on Wall Street than making syrup.
syrup price 1.JPG