As much as this rankles folks on the U.S. side of the border who are used to operating on the free-market system (mostly), the Federation certainly has done a lot to stabilize prices of syrup. This has had a huge positive impact on Quebec producers, and has kept the price of syrup high on our side of the fence (border) over the past decade too (until the value of the Canadian currency dropped recently). Not saying that it is the way to go here, but the majority of maple producers in Quebec voted it in and support it. With that type of system though, you can't have people on the fringes who bypass the system....otherwise everything falls apart for everyone except those few people. Therefore the "Rebels" must be kept in check. Most of the expansion in the U.S. is happening because of these high syrup prices that are a direct result of the Federation policies (aimed at limiting production and raising prices) and their strong negotiating power against the packers.
Essentially we in the U.S. can do (legally) what the "rebels" in Quebec cannot do, expand our operations and sell to whoever we want for whatever price we agree to. The real question is....how long will it be until the flea (maple producers everywhere else) on the back of the dog (the Federation) gets to be too much of an irritation, and then what will the dog eventually choose to do about it. One small example of that is the recent abrupt drop in price for Commercial and substandard syrup. That is simply the Federation cleaning out a portion of its reserves, but it has resulted in a sharp drop in price of Commercial/Substandard syrup (if you can even sell it). Of course (fortunately), their options are somewhat limited in some respects. If they drop prices across the board to slow U.S. growth, their reserves are instantly worth a lot less than what they have on the books. If they allow Quebec producers to grow, the market will be flooded with syrup very quickly. At this point we (producers in the U.S. and other Canadian Provinces) are still just a relatively small nuisance (but growing troublesomely). If you think the Federation isn't keeping a close eye on things on BOTH sides of the border you are very wrong. The fact that the Canadian Currency has dropped in value is quite helpful to them in several ways.
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