Originally Posted by
spud
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.
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?
Last edited by markcasper; 02-14-2018 at 07:56 AM.
Mark
Where we made syrup long before the trendies made it popular, now its just another commodity.
John Deere 4000, 830, and 420 crawler
1400 taps, 600 gph CDL RO, 4x12 wood-fired Leader, forced air and preheater. 400 gallon Sap-O-Matic vacuum gathering tank, PTO powered. 2500 gallon X truck tank, 17 bulk tanks.
No cage tanks allowed on this farm!