Quebec allows more taps

Quebec’s Maple Syrup Federation is allowing producers to add five million taps this spring and next year in an effort to regain lost market share.

The province held 82 per cent of the world market in 2003, but only 71 per cent last year.

The federation runs a supply-management system that aimed to restrict production so it could maintain high prices.

It limited increased to 30 per cent over the last decade, but now is allowing the increase to 43 million taps by next year.

"We allowed those new taps to fulfil the demand and make sure that Quebec is still producing and being part of the expansion of the market right now," said SimonTrepanier, head of the federation.

More than 90 per cent of the record 73 million kilograms of maple syrup made in Canada last year was tapped in Quebec, according to Statistics Canada.

There has been an increase in maple syrup production in areas around Quebec, including New Brunswick, Ontario and the United States.