Sticky Situation- Theives Steal $30 Million Worth of Maple Syrup From Little-Known 'Strategic Reserve' in Canada

All that syrup and not a pancake or waffle in sight!

Think of it as 'The Brinks of Breakfast'. Thieves had made off with an estimated C$30 million worth of maple syrup from a little-known strategic reserve in eastern Quebec on Thursday.

The shortfall of the sticky amber liquid was discovered during a routine inventory check at the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers warehouse in rural St Louis-du-Blanford, Quebec- a small town along the Trans Canada Highway on the south shore of the St Lawrence River between Quebec City and Montreal. The facility reportedly stores some 10 million pounds of maple syrup- some early estimates claimed that at least one third of the reserve's inventory had been stolen.

Quebec produces about 75% of the world's maple syrup. The facility holds about a fifth of the province's total quantity of unsold supply, stored each year to protect producers' from the ups and downs of global supply and demand.

The federation says it currently sells one pound of Quebec's maple syrup to distributors and food processors for C$2.86, though it can retail for much more at home and abroad.

Though strategic reserves are typically used to cushion petroleum markets, Quebec has kept a supply of unsold syrup for more than a decade, to be drawn on if supply of the quintessential Canadian staple falls because of poor yields, or higher-than-expected demand. From February to about mid-April, about 7,400 Quebec farmers tap their maple trees and boil sap in mostly small-scale so-called sugar shacks. They evaporate the goop into several closely regulated grades of syrup—extra light, light, medium and dark.

But sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate, causing shortages. Quebec syrup makers started squirreling away a cushion in 2000. They had to tap the reserves each year from 2005 to 2008. In 2008 and 2009, Quebec ran the reserve dry. Since then, producers have been slowly building it back up, and it now holds about 50 million pounds, up from 37 million pounds last year

The strategic reserve can also be used in times of reduced demand for the product. Canada surpassed the USA as the world's leading maple syrup producer sometime around WWII. In recent years, Japan has become a significant importer of maple syrup from Canada, offsetting a decline of exports to the USA since 2010. Canadians themselves are thought to account for 10% of the domestically produced syrup. Earlier this year, a warmer than usual winter had adversely affected the syrup harvest in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces.

On the US side of the border, Vermont is the biggest producer of syrup, followed by New York and Maine. The late winter/early spring gathering of maple sap is so iconic in the Green Mountain state that it was featured on the Vermont state quarter when it was minted in 2001. Some in the Quebec Maple syrup producers' association think that the vast quantites of amber sap could be in the USA or Europe by now.

Investigators haven't announced any new leads or suspects since news of the heist broke. It is worth pointing out that cargo theft by organized crime and well coordinated bandits throughout the USA and Canada is on the rise. Besides consumer electronics, entire truckloads of beef, tomatoes and even Alaskan king crab have been known to disappear. It wouldn't be that farfetched for robbers to help themselves to the sticky amber goods before it could even hit the road. While a multimillion dollar maple syrup heist sounds like some sort of Mackenzie brothers-meets-Die-Hard skit, it's not as though all that syrup has serial numbers and could be easily traced.

Another possibility being bandied about by industry insiders is that this could have been an inside job, either with somebody at the warehouse providing details to the theives beforehand or- and this is a little more complex and farfetched- arranged by somebody in the Maple Syrup Producers Association themselves. The Montreal Gazette notes that all maple syrup inventories are insured leaving open the possibility that somebody arranged for the theft to relieve the association of excess inventory while collecting on the insurance- and this could be on top of taking a percentage of the off-the-books sale of the boosted syrup that might've been agreed to in advance.