Quebec maple syrup makers turning to automation, expansion to keep up with demand
Global News
As demand for syrup has surged in recent years, Quebec's maple industry is evolving too, adding millions of new taps and turning to automation and better technology.
Visitors to the main building of the Côté et fils maple farm in Quebec’s Eastern Townships region will be greeted by a wall of screens with the views from dozens of security cameras, showing an array of tubes and troughs filling up with clear, foamy sap.
Through a door, inside the production area, noise-cancelling headphones are needed for the deafening hum of the gleaming machines transforming thousands of litres of maple sap into syrup each day.
Mikael Ruest acknowledges that the process is far removed from the folksy images of buckets and horse-drawn sleighs that still grace the company’s syrup cans.
“It’s a 2.0 version of a maple shack,” he said in an interview at the farm in Roxton Pond, Que. “We have a lot of cameras, optimization, monitoring around the forest to verify the leaks … and yes, it is not traditional. It’s a family thing, but it’s not traditional.”
As demand for syrup has surged in recent years, Quebec’s maple industry is evolving too, adding millions of new taps and turning to automation and better technology to satisfy a growing global sweet tooth.
Ruest, who is related to the Côté family and works for the business, says the business has made a number of investments in recent years to increase production and profit.
That has included running pipes underground, adding internet and cameras in pumping stations and buying three electric evaporators at a cost of about $250,000 each — although that cost was partly offset by subsidies that help businesses adopt greener technology. Monitors on the trees and in stations alert employees if there’s a leak, temperature change or problem with a pump.
Out in the forest, the clear sap bubbles slowly from the trees into blue and green tubing. From there, they’ll be brought to the 25 pumping stations, and then sent through underground pipes to the warehouse. The sap will be filtered before going through a reverse osmosis process that removes most of the water and concentrates the sap before boiling, saving time.
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As demand for syrup has surged in recent years, Quebec's maple industry is evolving too, adding millions of new taps and turning to automation and better technology.
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