Canadian farmers are becoming underground smugglers, making fresh maple syrup a highly sought-after contraband that flows secretly across the border. Worth millions, this sweet liquid now circulates in a shadowy market, walking a fine line between legality and ethics. This underground trade, known as Maple Syrup Smuggling, is quickly becoming one of Canada’s most lucrative illicit activities.
In 2016, Angel Grinier was accused of illegally selling maple syrup. She openly stated that she was fighting for “maple tree freedom,” not just for herself, but for other farmers. As a fourth-generation maple syrup producer, Grinier refused to follow the strict guidelines of the FPAQ (Quebec Maple Syrup Producers Federation), which required farmers to sell their syrup through the federation. Instead, she built an underground market, smuggling syrup to neighboring provinces. This act of rebellion made her one of the most wanted individuals in Canada.
Grinier, like many farmers, was frustrated. “We are forced to produce syrup according to FPAQ regulations every year, but most of it just sits in warehouses as surplus,” she said. “Only the syrup sold actually brings in profit. The syrup piled up in official warehouses leaves farmers with near $100,000 in debt.” 
For years, Grinier moved syrup across the border at night, avoiding middlemen, and directly supplying local businesses. Her illegal activities drew the attention of the authorities, who believed that her actions were disrupting the international maple syrup market. They accused her of endangering investors in futures markets by tampering with global supply.
The Monopoly of the Maple Syrup Market
Since the 1990s, due to unpredictable weather affecting syrup yields, the FPAQ has held the exclusive rights to control pricing, sales, and exports of maple syrup. Today, the federation controls 72% of the global maple syrup market, which is worth billions of dollars.
In 2016 alone, Quebec produced over 10 million gallons of maple syrup, exporting it to 52 countries. The majority of the syrup was sent to the United States, with secondary markets in Japan and Europe. At $1,650 per 600-pound barrel, maple syrup is one of the world’s most expensive natural products, worth 20 times more than oil.
Despite these hefty profits, Canadian farmers remain impoverished. They act as harvesters, collecting the valuable syrup and shipping it off to FPAQ’s warehouses, only to wait for the market to open and for brokers to make a substantial profit. Meanwhile, farmers are left with minimal pay for their hard work.
The “Maple Syrup Mafia”
St-Pierre, a businessman who dealt in Grinier’s smuggled syrup, became a symbol of the black market in maple syrup. He boldly accused the FPAQ of being like the mafia, monopolizing the market and exploiting farmers. “They control everything like a mafia. The greedy elite are eating away at the hard work of the farmers,” he said.
His words became a rallying cry in the underground maple syrup trade, and soon farmers across Quebec began smuggling syrup to the “free market,” even though St-Pierre’s prices were lower than the official ones. Farmers found this route more profitable and faster, bypassing the FPAQ’s control.
This “black market window” allowed numerous farmers to become “rebels,” smuggling syrup from official reserves straight into the hands of U.S. buyers—Canada’s biggest competitor.
The Great Maple Syrup Heist of 2012
In 2012, a group of maple syrup thieves, known as the “Great Rebels,” managed to steal 3,000 tons of syrup from FPAQ’s warehouse. They smuggled it across the U.S. border, earning $18.7 million in the process.
“The thieves spent almost a year draining the syrup barrels, replacing the stolen syrup with water to cover their tracks,” one source revealed. “They got too greedy, and in their haste, they missed the step of diluting the syrup with water, allowing the federation to detect the theft.”
This heist remains the largest maple syrup theft in Canadian history, accounting for 12.5% of the national syrup reserve. The incident disrupted the maple syrup market, and the black market took a blow to the FPAQ’s control over the global market.
Strict Laws and the Rise of the Black Market
Under Canadian law, anyone caught selling more than 5 liters of maple syrup illegally faces imprisonment or heavy fines. However, these tough regulations have done little to curb the growth of the underground maple syrup market. In fact, it has become one of the most lucrative contraband goods for farmers.
“The FPAQ has created a fear-based system, and they have far more financial resources than we do,” Grinier said. “But this won’t stop us from expanding into the free market. Authoritarianism will always lose the people’s support.”
