Maple syrup: Canada’s gift to the world

The maple leaf is the symbol of Canada and maple syrup—its most iconic foodstuff—is beloved both domestically and around the world. Indeed, just over two-thirds of the maple syrup produced globally in 2023 was tapped right here in Canada, with the majority exported to 68 countries around the world.

Just over three-fifths of Canada’s maple syrup exports destined for the United States

While the United States is the only country in the world other than Canada that commercially taps maple syrup, US production does not come close to meeting domestic demand. As a result, Canada exported $376 million of maple syrup to 38 US states and Puerto Rico in 2023, with the largest share going to Illinois ($76.5 million), California ($55.9 million) and Vermont ($50.1 million).

The high level of maple exports to Vermont in 2023 may be attributable to the challenging weather conditions in the spring of 2023 throughout the prime maple growing and sap flowing regions of Eastern Canada and the New England states. In 2023, four-fifths of US maple production came from Vermont (48.9%), New York (17.9%), Maine (11.2%) and New Hampshire (3.3%).

Over one-quarter of Canada’s maple syrup exports headed to Europe

Germany was Canada’s most important overseas export market for maple syrup in 2023, with sales topping $47.8 million, followed by France ($31.6 million) and the United Kingdom ($30.2 million). Overall, 26.5% of Canada’s maple syrup exports ($163.4 million) were destined for 30 European countries in 2023, making the continent Canada’s second most important export market following the United States.

Maple syrup is also popular in the Middle East, with exports destined for 10 countries in the region in 2023, with Israel ($4.8 million), the United Arab Emirates ($1.8 million) and Saudi Arabia ($1.0 million) being the top export markets.

Globally, Canada’s most important maple syrup export markets were Japan ($26.1 million) and South Korea ($6.7 million) in Asia; Australia ($27.4 million) in Oceania; the Republic of South Africa ($579,098) in Africa; and Chile ($381,204) in South America.

Some surprisingly big and small maple syrup export markets

Slovenia, a European country of 2.1 million people, ranked sixth in terms of Canadian maple syrup destinations in 2023, with exports totalling $14.6 million. Malta ($30,381) and Cyprus ($18,375), two small Mediterranean island states, also imported Canadian maple syrup in 2023.

Turks and Caicos Islands ($7,376) was one of three Caribbean countries that imported Canadian maple syrup in 2023.

In contrast, very little Canadian maple syrup was exported to the world’s most populous country of India ($124,265).

Quebec’s maple reserve kept the maple flowing during a down year of production

Canadian maple producers harvested 10.4 million gallons of maple syrup in 2023, down 40.1% from the record-high production in 2022. Production fell in all maple-producing provinces, largely due to severe storms and temperature fluctuations, leading to lower yields in 2023.

Exports were also down, but to a far lesser extent, with most of the shortfall made up for by tapping into Quebec’s maple syrup reserves. However, this brought Quebec’s maple reserves down to 3.1 million kilograms, their lowest level since 2008.

Maple syrup production numbers for 2024 will be released on December 12.