Luc Goulet, president of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, said the province’s strategic maple-syrup reserve has been brought to zero. He spoke at the release of a report on the industry’s economic contribution. CBC, after Canadian Press, and Le Devoir carry the remark. CBC’s headline says reserves are almost depleted; the word “zero” is Goulet’s, about the strategic reserve, not every barrel in the province.

The reserve is a buffer: sap yields depend on weather, and the association kept stock so prices and supply would not jump from year to year. Goulet says sales have emptied that buffer. If the weather is worse for sap flow, the industry could lose customers; that is his warning, not a tally of markets already lost this year.

His example is 2007 and 2008, when stocks ran out. Then, he says, markets were lost: buyers switch to another sweet, and the habit sticks. That is not proof the same thing has happened in 2026.

Louis Turenne, president of the Maple Industry Council, which represents authorized buyers, gives the export figures: up 9.34% in 2024 from 2023, up 15.8% in 2025, when U.S. commercial customers filled warehouses for fear of tariffs. From January through August 2026, up 2.48% on the same stretch of 2025. Nearly 65% of exports go to the United States; 20 years ago it was 80%.

The report, released Thursday, says more than 70% of North American maple-syrup production is in Quebec. Goulet is asking Quebec City for support and says investment is too low for his liking. Turenne wants support for production and new markets in Europe, Australia and Asia. Those are requests, not money paid.

The association used the election campaign to remind people of the jobs. Goulet says that in some municipalities, without maple syrup you might as well shut the villages. That is his line, not a census. The U.S. tariff scare, in this reporting, belongs to last year, when buyers built stock; we do not treat new tariffs as law.

Image: tubing in a maple grove, 23 April 2022, Dhatier, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The production grove, not the empty warehouse.

Sources consulted: Quebec's reserves of maple syrup almost depleted, says new report — CBC News; Les réserves québécoises de sirop d’érable sont écoulées — Le Devoir.