Maple-syrup price soars; will flapjack lovers waffle?

Attention, pancake lovers!

The price of light sweet amber is going up, hitting consumers where it hurts: the breakfast table. Maple syrup has skyrocketed to record prices of up to $60 a gallon, raising fears that the sticky staple of morning fare could become a treat too expensive for the workaday fan of flapjacks and French toast.

The reason: The price of light sweet crude — petroleum — is rising, forcing sugarhouses to spend more to turn sap into syrup.

Average syrup prices are up from about $45 a gallon last year, meaning a typical pint jug will retail for about $8.50, up from $7 last year.

"The day of the $50-a-gallon maple syrup is upon us," said Tom McCrumm, coordinator of the Massachusetts Maple Producers Association, which represents the state's maple business and generated $2 million in sales last year.

Patti Fuller, owner of Fuller's Sugarhouse in Franklin, N.H., said she reluctantly raised the price of a gallon of her syrup from $42 last year to $50 this year. She cited the increased cost of oil to power the machinery that boils the sap into syrup. The cost of plastic tubing and jugs also increased, she said, because they are also petroleum products.

"You're wondering how far up in price can I go before people say to themselves, 'I really don't have to have that. I can use something else,' " said Fuller, who produces 4,000 gallons of maple syrup a year.

Restaurant owners also are worried.

"We're bracing ourselves," said Daryl Levy, owner of Deluxe Town Diner in Watertown, which she said buys "mega" gallons a year from a sugarhouse in Putney, Vt. "We have great flapjacks, and as long as they keep selling well, we'll try to absorb any small increase and deal with it when it happens."

Producers said global demand for New England maple syrup is at an all-time high, which further drives up the price.

"It's really a global market now," said Lorraine Merrill, New Hampshire commissioner of agriculture. "Maple syrup — genuine, real maple syrup — is a North American product, native to southeastern Canada and the Northeast, that the rest of the world has discovered. ... [P]laces like Europe and Asia have developed a sweet tooth for real maple syrup."

Producers said prices remained low for years because Quebec, which produces three-fourths of the world's maple syrup, made more than it sold. But as global demand has risen, lapping up Quebec's reserves, local producers have endured two winters of unseasonable cold, which drove down production.

This year, demand far outstrips supply. But producers are struggling to keep up. Joe Boisvert raised prices at North Hadley Sugar Shack to $55 from $49 a gallon last year to buy enough diesel gasoline at $4.25 a gallon to fuel the pickups he uses to haul sap to his sugarhouse.