New York Farm Viability Institute Website Press Releases 

March 14, 2006

Maple News from New York Farm Viability Institute, Inc.

Contact: Steve Childs, Cornell University Maple Specialist, 607-255-1658, slc18@cornell.edu

NYFVI Project Sweetens Products, Markets for New York’s Maple Producers

Funding from the New York Farm Viability Institute (NYFVI) plus the agricultural and marketing expertise made available through the Institute’s NY Ag Innovation Center will be making New York State Maple Producers Association President Dwayne Hill’s dream come true.

“A significant amount of New York syrup leaves the state in bulk barrels. I would like to see that syrup made into higher value products that can be sold right here in New York,” Hill says, noting that millions of New Yorkers living in urban and suburban areas do not have access to syrup made and marketed mainly in New York’s rural areas.

“I would like to see a series of activities leading up to the goal of having a group of maple producers working together to supply a large grocery chain with a line of high quality value-added maple products – maple cream, sugar, candy, suckers, etc. No one producer is large enough to do this alone. But first, we need value-added workshops coupled with product research and a handbook outlining better quality standards for our producers.”

Cornell University Maple Specialist Steve Childs, Cornell Maple Program Director Brian Chabot, and Peter Smallidge, director of Arnot Research Forest, will team with Michael Farrell, director of the Uihlein Maple Research Station at Lake Placid; Olga Padilla-Zakour, director of the Food Venture Center at the New York State Agricultural Research Station at Geneva; Steve Richards, director of NY FarmNet/NYFarmLink; and Brian Henehan and Judith Barry of the Cornell University Business Structure Assistance Program, and at least 11 representatives of the New York State Maple Producers statewide for this project.

The team is 1) conducting research to determine the most marketable value-added maple products, 2) will evaluate tools that producers can use for quality testing of their products, and 3) will draft, test, and publish Maple Value-Added Product Guidelines. Those efforts together add up to profits for the maple producers who implement the new resources.

“Selling syrup in retail packaging improves producer income by forty to one-hundred percent,” Childs says. “ Converting syrup to confections can improve income four to five-fold.”

To meet producers’ need for hands-on training, the NYFVI project will develop a Maple Confections and Value-Added Workshop to be held at seven sites across the state starting in September 2006. The workshops will provide producers with the opportunity to make value-added products and to test their products against a quality standard.

“Through the workshops, producers will learn about new products and techniques; and how to improve product uniformity and quality and evaluate the economics of making, pricing and selling their products,” Chabot says.

Selected producers will conduct production and marketing costs evaluations to assist the development of pricing and profit training for other producers to be offered in a second round of workshops in 2007. At the same time, five Cornell Cooperative Extension agents will be training to better assist maple producers with value-added product development.

A longer-range project goal is to develop a cooperative marketing group of maple producers to sell value-added products to urban and suburban retailers.

“New Yorkers consume significantly more maple products than are produced within the state. New York annually sells forty percent of its maple crop bulk in barrels, much of it going out of state. We have significant opportunities to improve producer income through value-added products and improved marketing,” Smallidge says.

“We believe producers can increase their incomes by ten to thirty percent in two to three years’ time. The funding of this project by the New York Farm Viability Institute and the enthusiasm of New York’s maple producers put that goal easily within reach,” Smallidge adds.

The New York Farm Viability Institute, Inc. is a farmer-led, non-profit organization connecting agricultural and green industry producers, farm organizations, educators and researchers statewide. Through its NY Ag Innovation Center, the Institute makes available to farmers and green producers a diverse network of farm advisors to increase the sales of NY agricultural products and the profitability of the businesses that produce them. The Institute’s projects reduce the barriers and maximize the opportunities for growing NY’s agricultural and green sectors with direct, measurable benefits at the producer-level.

For more information on the Maple Confections and Value-Added Workshops series, contact New York Farm Viability Institute, Inc., 159 Dwight Park Circle, Suite 104, Syracuse, NY 13209, 315-453-3823, www.nyfarmviability.org . # # #


2004 New York Maple Survey Facts
In 2004, The Cornell Maple Program Advisory Committee rated developing value-added products and developing new marketing channels as two of its highest priorities. A 2004 survey of 267 New York maple producers indicated:

… 30 percent made the most common value-added maple products: maple cream and molded maple sugar

… 14 percent were making and marketing maple sugar

… less than 10 percent were making maple coatings, suckers or other confections

… 57% of Maple Weekend participants promoted the fact that maple value-added products would be available at their sugarhouses that weekend

… 30 percent sell to grocery or specialty stores

… 22 percent sell at trade shows, farmers markets and fairs

… only 8.8 percent of their gross maple income comes from value-added products

Maple Confections and Value-Added Workshops Schedule
September 8-9 Chautauqua
September 15-16 Warren County
September 22-23 Arnot Forest
October 27-28 Western NY
November 3-4 Catskills Region
November 17-18 Lewis County