Canada’s Syrup Cartel Challenged by Vermont’s ‘Maple on Steroids’

If you think you enjoyed maple syrup with your breakfast this morning, you may well be wrong. America’s favorite pancake topper—Aunt Jemima, a PepsiCo brand that last year reached 132 million consumers—is, in fact, made of corn syrup. It contains zero maple tree sap. The same is true of the two other top-selling syrup brands, Mrs. Butterworth’s and Log Cabin.

If, however, you poured “pure maple syrup” this morning, then there’s a good chance you were using the product of a cartel. More than 70% of all maple syrup sold worldwide, and most of the maple syrup consumed in the U.S., comes from a single Canadian conglomerate, the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers. The OPEC-like entity at last count was holding 7.5 million gallons in barrels, waiting for prices—currently at about $33 per gallon—to rise.