Reflections on Wisconsin Maple Syrup
This weekend I was able to attend the Wisconsin Maple Syrup Producers Association winter institute. I’ve attended this the past couple years, and enjoy the opportunity to meet other maple syrup producers, browse equipment, and learn what other businesses are up to. This year I was one of the primary presenters, and I shared Tapped’s products and activities in a presentation titled “Strategies and Tips to Grow Your Markets beyond Pancake Eaters.” As a small and young business, I found it interesting to present to a room full of people with more experience and success than we have with Tapped. The presentation, however, provided lots of opportunity to talk with other producers who stopped by to talk after the presentation. And, I was able to attend a few other sessions to learn about different aspects of maple syrup quality, business development, and approaches to maple syrup products. One of the highlights of the event was the presentation of the Producer of the Year Award. This year’s award went to Dave and Shirley Lemke of Running Tree Sugarhouse of Medford. The company now is 3rd generation syrup makers and are one of Wisconsin’s larger maple syrup producers. Most of all, however, the institute provided a good reflection point on the industry as a whole and our business specifically.
Wisconsin is the number 4 maple syrup producing state in the country. USDA statistics show that in 2019 we put in about 800,000 taps and produced about 270,000 gallons of maple syrup. That maple syrup was worth around $8.5 million. These are all increases over 2018, and similar to production in 2013. Even though Wisconsin is 4th in the country, we’re a long way behind Vermont, which is 1st (and we’re all way behind Canada which produces about 80% of the maple syrup made). Vermont produced over 2 million gallons of maple syrup in 2019, nearly 10 times more than Wisconsin (Quebec alone was close to 9 million gallons!).
Tapped and our partner producers accounted for about 0.2% of the number of taps and gallons of syrup produced in the state this year. Some of the bigger producers in the state each account for around 5% of the taps and production. That puts our business in good perspective. We’re just a tiny little company trying to do some big, interesting things.
All of these statistics get me thinking about where I’d like to see Wisconsin maple syrup in the future. I shared some of this during my presentation at the institute. I’d like to see Wisconsin (or at least the Upper Great Lakes region) be the number 1 producer of maple syrup in the country. The number and size of sugar maples in Wisconsin continues to increase (we have somewhere around 1.6 billion sugar maple trees, let alone red maple - we have lots more tapping potential!). With the changing climate, sugar maple ranges will likely continue to shift north, but northern Wisconsin should continue to be prime range for the species. Vermont and New York are likely to have more negative consequences to maple syrup production from climate change than Wisconsin. For Wisconsin to become the leader in maple syrup production, we need to focus on innovation in products and experiences. Tapped and other companies I believe have just scraped the surface with products. There’s lots more to do with maple sap and syrup. The top of my list includes fermented beverages included liqueurs, “rum”, and sap “beer” (think chicha) and non-alcoholic beverages including sodas and sports drinks. Creating several maple syrup experience destinations and events also has incredible potential. Maple syrup-focused (ideally in sugarbushes) restaurants are particularly interesting to me as are series of seasonal events for people to experience the sugarbushes and sugarshacks of the state. I believe with this focus on innovation, maple sap and syrup can be one way to support vibrant rural communities and economies in the state. I’d love for Tapped to play a role in all these efforts, but it will take a lot of us current and future tappers to bring this vision to fruition!