MONTREAL - Mining the liquid gold flowing from maple trees in parts of Eastern Canada is proving to be a difficult task this year.
A combination of unpredictable weather and heavy snowfall this past winter is causing monumental headaches for maple syrup producers.
Producers in areas around Quebec City and eastern Ontario are digging out pipes buried beneath two metres of snow.
Freezing temperatures mean the sap is rock-solid in some places.
Mario Faille - a maple syrup producer in Hemmingford, Quebec - says only about one quarter of this season's crop has been collected.
Quebec accounts for nearly 80 per cent of maple syrup production in the world.
But low production, in combination with growing exports, have burned through massive syrup stockpiles collected during years of bumper yields.
Ontario producers are similarly snowed under
While the cupboards are now bare, producers say there's no reason to panic yet.
Almost 90 per cent of production is collected in the last week of March and the first three weeks of April.
