The stock market may be down, but maple syrup production is up.
New York produced 845 thousand gallons of maple syrup in 2022, breaking the state’s own 75-year-old record from 2019, when its maple industry produced 820,000 gallons of syrup.
The state’s production this year was 31% above that of 2021, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) reported June 10th.
New York accounts for roughly 20 percent of the nation’s maple syrup retail sales and nearly 70 percent of the nation’s bulk maple syrup sales, according to USDA statistics.
Its maple syrup production has increased approximately 50 percent over the last decade, according to the NYS Maple Producers Association.
According to NASS, the number of maple taps in New York in 2022 was estimated to be 2.90 million, unchanged from last year. Yield per tap increased to 0.291 gallon per tap, up from 0.223 in 2021. The earliest sap flow reported was on New Year’s Day in both New York and Vermont. New York’s season lasted on average 33 days, compared with 29 days in 2021.
New York’s 2021 value of production totaled $24.5 million, down 12% from 2020. The average retail price per gallon in 2021 was $37.80, up from $34.40 in 2020. The value of New York’s 2022 maple syrup production will be published in the Crop Production Report, June 2023.
According to Vermont’s Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, that state’s 2021 value of production totaled $56 million, up from $52.7 million in 2020. The average retail price per gallon was up .80 cents per gallon to $46.30 New York State was second only to Vermont in US Maple Syrup production in 2022.
According to Vermont’s Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, Vermont maple syrup producers put out 6.65 million maple taps in 2022, an increase of 150K over the 2021 total. Yield per tap is estimated to be 0.383 gallon, significantly up from 0.269 gallon from the previous season.
Vermont has led the U.S. in the number of maple taps every year since 1916 and was only out-produced in 1926 and 1918. In 2003 Vermont had 2.12 million taps and has been steadily increasing to 6.65 million in 2022. Annual production prior to 1935 was typically between 1 million and 1.4 million gallons.
This dropped to around 200,000 to 300,000 gallons in the 1970s.
Since 2003 Vermont’s maple syrup production has increased from around 500,000 gallons to 2.55 million gallons in 2022.
According to the NYS Maple Producers Association, New York State is home to the largest resource of tappable maple trees within the United States.
Its producers are among the nation’s most innovative, according the Cornell Maple Program. According to a press release, the Maple Program recently collaborated with a graduate student in the Cornell Master of Food Science program, Christian Mercado, to develop a new liqueur, Mappleau, a diluted maple syrup fortified with maple brandy. It was inspired by Pommeau, the fresh apple cider fortified with apple brandy and aged.
A version of this article first appeared on the Lake George Mirror, America’s oldest resort paper, covering Lake George and its surrounding environs. You can subscribe to the Mirror HERE.
Photo: Maple syrup makers in Thurman, Warren County.
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