The Elmira Produce Auction will be selling bulk maple syrup
for the first time on April 19.
“We strongly believe there’s a demand for bulk maple syrup,’
said Clarence Knorr, one of the managers at Elmira Produce Auction.
“Eventually it will establish a price” for bulk maple syrup.
“Maybe not this year, but in the future.”
There are some brokers, dealers and processors who buy maple
syrup in bulk, but it takes time to check with all of them to make a sale and
even then it’s not clear whether the market is competitive.
Bulk prices tend to be influenced by Quebec where volumes
are much greater and sales are centralized.
The Elmira Produce Auction has expanded and diversified
since it was begun by a group of Old Order Mennonites to foster production of
vegetable crops and provide a marketing outlet for vegetables, fruits and
flowers.
That prompted many local Mennonites to invest in greenhouses
and to sharpen their production and marketing skills.
The Elmira Produce Auction then added an auction for straw
and hay, providing a service that has helped farmers establish prices in a
market that had been mainly between neighbours.
The Elmira Produce Auction also prompted the first manager
to set up a service to market direct to larger-volume buyers whenever they or
producers wanted to make a deal. That freed buyers and sellers from trucking
their produce to the auction which operates a couple of mornings per week
during the peak growing season.
