Canadian maple syrup producers are tapping the country's emergency reserve of the sticky sweet stuff as it looks to meet demand amid a global shortage.
The Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, a group known as the World Maple Syrup Cartel and sometimes compared to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries grip on oil, announced this week that it is pulling 50 million pounds of syrup from its strategic reserve.
That is the most the group has released from the reserve in a single season since 2008 and amounts to about half of the entire stockpile.
Helene Normandin, spokeswoman for the group, said producers weren't able to make enough syrup this year due to a warmer and shorter spring than expected.
That is why the reserve is made to never miss maple syrup. We won't miss maple syrup! She told NPR.
More than 70 percent of the world's maple syrup supply comes from the French-speaking Canadian province.
Normandin told Bloomberg that demand for maple syrup surged as people cooked more at home during the epidemic.
Export sales rose by 21 percent from a year ago to 113.5 million pounds between January and September.
The maple syrup producers in Quebec saw production fall by 24 percent due to the uncharacteristically short and warm spring season.
The unusual weather hit maple syrup production particularly hard because tree sap is only able to be harvested during a short window when the temperature alternates between freezing and thawing.
It is not the first time that Quebec Maple Syrup Producers Strategic Reserve has made headlines.
In 2012, thieves made off with more than 3,000 tons of maple syrup — worth some $19 million Canadian dollars — from the stockpile. The syrup was quietly syphoned off from the reserve over the course of months.