After a record-breaking year for maple syrup production in 2022, producers in New Brunswick are facing a big disappointment this year.

The season has just wrapped up for 2023 and the executive director of the New Brunswick Maple Syrup Association is already calling it a disastrous year.

Always at the mercy of the weather, Louise Poitras said Mother Nature was simply not cooperating with a “warm days, cold nights” scenario.

“We started off right in March but then we got into three weeks of very cold temperatures. Then it got hot in the daytime and there were no freezing temperatures overnight.”

Poitras believes the industry will only yield about half of last year’s 811,000 gallons.

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She noted how the situation was similar across the province.

“Usually it’s not the same in the south because there is a shorter period of harvest compared to the north – but this year it was exactly the same.”

Poitras recently spoke to producers in Quebec – which is the world’s largest producer of maple syrup – and they face a similar situation.

By late November, Poitras said all of the province’s syrup is typically sold so there could be shortages on the shelf and perhaps higher prices.

She is now surveying producers but fears the industry will be facing a huge financial loss this year.