Northern N.B. sees worst maple sugar season in 35 years

The 2007 maple sugar season has not been kind to maple syrup producers in northern New Brunswick, as unusually cold weather this spring cut their production in half.

Yvon Poitras, head of the New Brunswick Maple Syrup Association, says this season is the worst in 35 years of recorded history in the industry.

He says producers in the south of the province had a decent year, but up north they were able to produce only half of the syrup they normally make.

Dwayne Stevenson, with Canadian Organic Maple near Florenceville, is one of those northern producers. Stevenson says temperatures were five to10 degrees below normal this spring, and the sap barely ran.

"It was just too cold of nights and too cold of days and it really never opened up a run for us," he said.

Poitras met last week with government officials to explain the situation, but he says there's not much they can do.

"We're not going to run to government and beg for money because Mother Nature did something bad," Poitras said. "It's a problem and it's a situation that happens once and awhile. This one was worse than the others but we just turn the page and continue living."

Poitras doesn't think prices will be affected by the poor season, but he says there will definitely be fewer bottles of New Brunswick syrup on store shelves this year.