Analysis Of Maple Syrup

Business Analysis

Major Trends in the Maple Industry

Canada is the largest producer of Maple Syrup in the world, so it is no surprise that the Canadian Maple industry has changed quite dramatically in the past 25 years. According to the Government of Canada, the efficiency of maple farms has increased by almost 20% in the past 25 years. In 1981, a farm would have been able to get 1,404,000 taps. In 2006, this number had increased to 3,913,000 taps per farm. In addition to increasing efficiency, the amount of maple syrup being produced by farmers has been increasing. Production increased 17.6% to 8.6 million gallons in 2011 compared to 2010(15). Exports of Canadian maple products also saw an upward trend in the past 15 years. According to statistics on Agriculture and Agri-Food of Canada, our exports of maple products by weight grew an outstanding 63% from 1997 to 2006. The number of organic maple syrup producers has dropped as a result of stricter organic production standards(23). Because of this drop, and because most of the organic maple syrup that is produced is sold in foreign markets, there may be an opportunity to make money by producing and exporting organic maple syrup.

Principal Competitors

Canada exports approximately 2500-3000 tonnes of maple syrup to Japan annually. Since this makes Canada Japan’s largest source of maple syrup, our principal competitors are the existing Canadian companies that create and export maple syrup to Japan. Some of these competitors are L.B. Maple Treat, H.T. Emicott, and Maple Terroir. L.B. Maple Treat has been in the maple syrup industry for over 35 years. They use no chemicals, preservatives, or additives in the production of their maple syrup. They participated in a Japanese international...

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...ndise before it is shipped, because it is the safest form of payment for us. Once we establish an ongoing business relationship, we will accept documentary collection, where a bank acts as an intermediary without accepting financial risk. If the importer’s credit rating is questionable, we may use a letter of credit, where the importer’s bank issues a document stating they will pays us when we fulfill the terms of the document. For our most trusted customers, we may use open account, where we ship first and bill the customer later.(22)

Opportunities for Canadian Government support

The Quebec government and the Canadian government have partnered to market maple syrup overseas. As a result, international demand has soared.(2) The government of Nova Scotia, where 90% of maple trees are untapped, supports maple syrup production as well by leasing forested Crown land.(4)