LONGUEUIL, Que.—Could be a whopper of a crop in Quebec. Maybe the biggest ever.

“We are now on a path that makes us believe we can also have our best harvest of all time,” said Joel Vaudeville, spokesman for the Québec Maple Syrup Producers federation.

Some sugarmakers with knowledge of the industry in the provovince have whispered that it could shatter the 2022 record crop of 211.2 million pounds

The federation will announce the crop total at the end of the month, but almost all anecdotal discussion says it will be big.

All of this is expected to be welcome news for the federation, who were holding next to zero barrels of carryover syrup in the storage warehouses near Montreal, known at the Global Strategic Reserve. It was nearly completely drained at the beginning of this season.

Replenishing it was vital in order to keep hard-fought retail store shelve slots in the highly competitive grocery marketplace, but also to satisfy new sales accounts in export markets, which have boomed during and since the pandemic.

Sugarmakers in Quebec will be paid $3.20 per pound (Canadian) for golden syrup in 2024, the federation said.

Currently, the global strategic maple syrup reserve consists of just under 7 million pounds of maple syrup, Vaudeville told The Maple News.

The level of the strategic maple syrup reserve is explained by the small production in 2023 and the continued demand for maple syrup, he said.

To replenish the reserve, the federation granted 7 million new taps in 2021 and 2023. Ultimately, in 2026, 14 million additional taps will be in production for an average total of 42 million pounds per year, he said.

Meanwhile, U.S. production in 2024 is also expected to result in big crop, despite many southern production areas struggling.

Big totals in Northern Vermont and Northern Maine are expected to make up for and exceed any shortfalls from states like Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Most bulk buyers are paying $2.20 per pound baseline in the U.S., with premiums on top of that for certain grades, Organic and other incentives.