Quebec's maple syrup reserve is running dry because processors appear to have bought out what was there
Quebec's maple syrup producers set up the reserve in 2000 to try to stabilize supplies and prices, said Maurice Doyon, a professor at Laval University in Quebec City who specializes in agri-food economics.
This time, CBC reports that the reserve is running dry because Quebec's authorized processors — who buy, bottle, process and market the syrup — appear to have bought out what was there. When the reserve is low, they compete with each other to secure supply.
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Processors appear to have bought out what was there, and when the reserve is low they compete for supply. That is less a raid than a scramble among buyers who can see the bottom of the barrel.
A reserve set up to try to stabilize supplies and prices becomes a different thing when it is low: competition to secure supply is the story. That is not a buffer smoothing a market; it is the buffer becoming the market's most contested asset.