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Quebec’s strategic maple syrup reserve will be completely depleted by the end of February.
The world’s only strategic stockpile of maple syrup, spread across three warehouses in Quebec and roughly the size of 53 Olympic swimming pools, is running dry as global demand surges.
Producteurs et productrices acéricoles du Québec (PPAQ), the organization representing nearly 13,500 maple syrup producers in the province, oversees the reserve. According to PPAQ president Luc Goulet, the stockpile has been reduced to zero as sales climb around the world.
“Our strategic reserve has been reduced to zero,” Goulet remarked while discussing a report regarding the economic advantages of the sector.
Accounting for more than 70 per cent of North American production, Quebec provides the vast majority of the total maple syrup available globally. The province’s producers established the reserve in 2000 to stabilize supplies and prices after bad harvests, according to Maurice Doyon, a professor at Laval University in Quebec City who specializes in agri-food economics.
“When there’s a bad harvest, [they] can dip into that reserve to supply the market,” Doyon said.
This time, however, the reserve is empty because authorized maple syrup processors who buy and bottle the product have bought out the inventory. The PPAQ said that while the reserve will be empty once all volumes under contract are delivered, overall supply remains steady because inventories shifted from the reserve to buyers’ warehouses, with processor inventories increasing by more than 35 million pounds.
Both the PPAQ and processors point to a sharp rise in global demand. Federal data from Statistics Canada indicated that exports of Canadian maple items reached $844.2 million during the previous year, marking a 17.2 per cent rise over the year prior.
Goulet and Louis Turenne, president of the Maple Industry Council, both cited uncertainty surrounding U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats as a factor that drove U.S. commercial customers to stock up.
Exports increased by 9.34 percent in 2024 compared to the previous year. Growth quickened in 2025 by 15.8 percent, though in 2026, the rate of export growth slowed to 2.48 percent during the January to August timeframe relative to the same months the year before.
Turenne said that nearly 65 percent of maple syrup exports currently go to the United States. While twenty years ago that figure stood at 80 percent, industry leaders say the company must continue diversifying into European, Australian, and Asian markets.
When production, processing, and specialized equipment manufacturers are combined, the maple syrup industry contributed $1.21 billion to the gross domestic product in 2025, according to the industry group’s report. The industry accounts for over 10,000 full-time equivalent jobs and produced $285 million in tax income, a figure that does not include public land lease fees or municipal taxes.
Despite the empty reserve, the PPAQ maintains there are no market supply concerns for 2027 due to processor inventories and an increasing number of taps being installed across Quebec.