Warm Winter Cuts Canada’s Sugar Production

Maple ‘Sapsuckers’ blame El Nino for worst year ever for fledgling syrup industry, reports Darrell Bellaart on Canada.com.

An unusually warm winter caused Vancouver Island maple sugar production to fall to 30% of normal levels this year.

Victoria Island-made syrup and sugar from big leaf maple trees has seen growing popularity during the past decade but this year’s supply was drastically reduced without the cold weather that makes trees send sap upward into the trunk.

For the Sapsuckers, a loose-knit group of maple sugar producers between Victoria and Campbell River, the results have been disappointing.

The fledgling sugar industry is so new to the Island there is insufficient data to know whether warm temperatures are responsible, but no one remembers this happening before.

“It’s El Nino,” said Gary Backlund of Ladysmith. “It was a real poor season. The sap was really dark.”

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