Erablière Charbonneau, outside Montreal, has had busy traffic at its sugar shack this month as unseasonably warm weather has abruptly halted production for many farmers in southern and western Quebec.
Police have struck again with their latest maple syrup raid, entering a warehouse and seizing dozens of barrels of the sticky condiment Friday near Quebec City. Police weren't releasing many details about the operation in a district of Levis, Que., but the search is believed to be connected to a recent theft from the syrup stockpiles in a Quebec warehouse.
Provincial police Sgt. Daniel Thibodeau said the operation went on throughout the day.
"I can't say yet what quantity was seized nor if there were any arrests," he said in the early evening.
In August, the Quebec Federation of Maple Syrup Producers reported the theft of a massive quantity from its warehouse in St-Louis-de-Blandford.
The theft was discovered during a routine inventory check.
The burglarized warehouse held more than 4.5 million kilograms of maple syrup, valued at over $30-million; the exact amount of the theft was never disclosed.
That syrup had only been in the warehouse on a temporary basis and was scheduled to be moved to a new facility before it was stolen.
It was the second major maple syrup seizure in recent weeks.
Police investigating the theft also carried out a separate search in late September at a company in Kedgwick, N.B. During that raid, roughly 800 barrels of syrup were seized and the haul famously received a police escort back to Quebec.
Quebec produces between 70 and 80 per cent of the world's maple syrup and two-thirds of the Canadian supplies are exported to the United States, according to that provincial producers' federation.