30 years of joint maple production celebrated with book launch

The 2020 sugar season was launched in Quebec City’s Bois-de-Coulonge Park as attendees celebrated the 30th anniversary of the joint plan for maple production on February 18.

André Lamontagne, the Quebec Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food,  took part in the tapping ceremony along with a number of provincial MPs. QMSP representatives also took the opportunity to launch the book Si l’érable m’était conté, which recounts 100 years of maple production history in Quebec.

2020 marks the 30th anniversary of the creation of the joint plan for maple production. To mark the occasion, the Quebec Maple Syrup Producers wanted to tell their story and share a part of the province’s heritage with as many people as possible. That’s how the book, Si l’érable m’était conté : 1920 – 2020, 100 ans d’acériculture au Québec, came to be. 

Serge Beaulieu, who has been QMSP President since 2007 and was involved in the industry in 1989 when the joint plan was created, had this to say: “Becoming a full-time maple syrup producer and making it your profession was almost impossible to imagine from the 1950s up to the 1980s. But now in 2020, maple syrup has become the main type of agricultural production in many regions in Quebec.

Today, maple syrup production translates to 10,000 full-time jobs and $600 million for the Quebec economy. The collective effort of the 11,300 maple syrup producers across the board has made it possible to create a stable environment in which the maple syrup industry can flourish. Our organization was born out of a desire shared by many to grow this once-ancillary production business into an economic sector in its own right. Our predecessors believed—and we still believe today—that when we all work together to move forward collectively, we get a lot farther.”

Si l’érable m’était conté, 1920 – 2020 : un siècle d’acériculture au Québec consists of 16 chapters, interspersed with photos of maple producing families, that explain what it was like for maple producers in the 1920s and the collective action that led to the creation of the Quebec maple syrup production system. It tells the story of the passionate people who succeeded in making Quebec the world leader in maple production.