N.S. syrup producer thanks Canadians for support

Aug 13, 2018

The dispute between Canada and Saudi Arabia left Anna Hutchinson with 900 litres of maple syrup on her farm

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

A Lake Paul, N.S., maple syrup producer thanks customers across the country for helping her family get out of a “sticky situation.

“The support that fellow Canadians showed us has been unbelievable,” Anna Hutchinson told Farms.com today. “As of yesterday, we sold all the syrup that, a week ago, we didn’t know if we were going to be able to move at all.

“We are so very humbled and can’t begin to express our thanks to anyone who purchased our product, whether it was one bottle or 10.”

Canadian customers contacted Hutchinson to purchase the syrup after a CBC story about her situation.

“It wasn’t even anything we did,” Hutchinson said. “People just started calling and emailing us saying they would buy some of the syrup.”

Last week, Hutchinson’s company, Hutchinson Acres, bottled and labeled about 900 litres of maple syrup destined for Saudi Arabia. Then, she received a call from her buyer to put the order on hold.

“It’s quite the shock when you have everything on pallets and are waiting for the trucks to arrive only to have to cancel everything,” Hutchinson said.

Saudi Arabia suspended shipments of maple syrup in response to an ongoing diplomatic dispute with Canada. The Middle Eastern country has also paused imports of Canadian wheat and barley.

Aside from the words “Hutchinson’s,” “Your Maple Syrup,” and “Keep it sweet, but naturally,” all the text on the jug is in Arabic.

“We have (international) customers in Germany and Dubai,” Hutchinson said “But we had to get approvals from local governing bodies for those specific labels. We didn’t get permission from Dubai to use the same labels for Saudi Arabia, so we had to make new one specifically for that market.

“Whenever you go into a new market, the customers want to make sure the label meets all of their requirements.”

Hutchinson hopes the issues between the two countries will be resolved soon.

The two countries “are still talking, so that’s always a good sign,” she said. “But we might not know for a few weeks what the outcome will be.”

Hutchinson Acres/Facebook photo

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