A maple syrup bottle in the store at Inthewoods Sugar Bush. PC: Fox 11 Online
DE PERE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The Trump administration’s on-again, off-again tariffs targeting a wide range of products is creating uncertainty for business in a variety of industries, including for maple syrup makers.
Since childhood, Theresa Baroun has been tapping trees, collecting sap and turning it into what they call “liquid gold” on her family farm, Maple Sweet Dairy, in De Pere.
“We’ve been making maple syrup here since 1964,” she says.
Right now, producers are in the height of the maple syrup season, which only lasts around six weeks. And just like many other industries, a question hangs over local producers: Will the Trump administration’s tariffs impact the maple syrup business?
“When it comes to the effect on equipment, a lot of stuff goes back and forth. A lot of equipment is made in Canada, but they’re getting U.S. products and making that equipment in Canada,” said Baroun, who is also the executive director of the Wisconsin Maple Syrup Producers Association.
Syrup-making equipment certainly could take a hit, but with on-and-off tariffs, it’s hard to know what’s in place and how long it’ll last.
“One thing is the tubing. You’re getting stuff from Canada, make the tubing in the U.S. and it’s going back to Canada. And a lot of equipment dealers are from Canada, but even U.S. dealers, they’re getting they’re fabrication stuff from other countries, so this year from equipment-wise, I think people are okay, but in the future, we really don’t know what tariffs are doing, because one day you have tariffs put on and then one day you don’t, so as the future goes by, it is going to increase the price of that equipment both ways, in the U.S. and in Canada,” says Baroun.
“I’m set for a lot of years, so it ain’t going to bother me any, but I feel for the producers out there now that want to expand their industry if that’s going to hurt them,” says Jesse Wagner, owner of InTheWoods Sugar Bush near Manitowoc.
Wagner’s operation near Manitowoc produces about 2,000 gallons of syrup each season.
Just like Baroun’s products, all of it stays local — and if tariffs raise prices of Canadian products in the states, it could be a boon.
“It might help us out a little bit. It might drive the local community to shop local,” Wagner says. “I encourage people to come out and buy local syrup. Then we don’t have to import as much syrup from Canada, and we can just charge our fair price.”
But there are Wisconsin producers who export their syrup to places like Canada, China and Japan, Baroun says.
They’re worried. They’re worried with that 25%, they’re worried. But on that aspect too, they also can raise that price to affect that, but raising that price, it may make that person they’re selling not want their product. So it can go both ways.
More than anything, it’s the uncertainty that frustrates many in the industry.
“As we know, we don’t know the effect of the tariff because it changes from day to day,” Baroun says.
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