Originally published Thursday, April 3, 2008 at 12:00 AM
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...
The Boston Globe
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.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
Happy hour | Union offers fine dining at happy-hour prices
Ask the Splendid Table: How to retain flavor when cooking tomatoes
Recipe: Caramelized little tomatoes with linguine
Recipe: Chili-spice rub with orange

Raw video | Renton apartment fire
A large fire burned in what is described as an unoccupied apartment or condominium development in the Highlands neighborhood of Renton earlier this evening. Video courtesy Lindsey Froemke, special to the Seattle Times.
Entertainment | Top Video | World | Offbeat Video | Sci-Tech
shopping

events for Friday, Jul. 3rd
- Nordstrom Men's Half-Yearly Sale
- Posh on Main Semiannual Sale
- REI Summer Sale and Clearance
- Kuhlman Summer Sale
editors' picks
More shopping guides- Bicyclist killed Wednesday night is identified
- Politics Northwest | Stephen Colbert takes on lawsuit against Seattle fireworks show
- Speculation grows for Boeing 787 plant in South Carolina
- Feds arrest 31 in drug raids from Lynnwood to Northern California
- Yakima teacher reprimanded for sending 5-year-old student home with bag of feces in backpack
- Feds seize Madoff penthouse, wife leaves
- Rivals show up at Hutchison news conference
- 6 jurors swear a cop's wife swayed panel in Kent civil rights case
- Girl, 14, clung to life on jet debris off Comoros Island
- Winter snowpack melts into waterfalls
- Obama's own party worried health plan lacks votes
239 - Seattle Mariners at New York Yankees: 07/02 game thread
200 - How I learned to kinda, sorta like Oklahoma City
194 - Palin resigning as Alaska governor
174 - Eyman turns in signatures for new initiative to limit government spending
163 - Seattle Mariners see bats come alive for 8-4 win over New York Yankees
122 - Recession wipes out 9 years of job gains
74 - Yakima teacher reprimanded for backpack feces
71 - 6 jurors swear a cop's wife swayed panel in Kent civil rights case
56 - Obama's practical immigration-reform approach: Legalize status of illegal workers
51
- Paddler's paradise: South Sound offers quiet and beauty
- Politics Northwest | Stephen Colbert takes on lawsuit against Seattle fireworks show
- Winter snowpack melts into waterfalls
- Speculation grows for Boeing 787 plant in South Carolina
- Jerry Large | An aging parent forces agonizing decision
- Going to Gas Works Park? Good luck
- Liven up Fremont's attempt to break a world record for a 'zombie walk'
- Lynnwood's City Bank gets tighter scrutiny
- Costco contacts customers as beef recalled
- Bicyclist killed Wednesday night is identified
