Thanks to the great legal humor blog Lowering the Bar, that I have posted about before, I discovered that Canada had been the victim of a theft valued in excess of $30 million Canadian dollars – 10 million pounds of syrup (that’s approx. 4.5 million kilos).

Quebec produces 70-80% of the world’s maple syrup, and the Fédération des producteurs acéricoles du Québec does indeed store lots and lots of syrup in a central location. It apparently does this to stabilize supply in times when syrup is scarce (like now, because of problems with the American harvest), and so its inventory “can, therefore, be considered a global strategic reserve.”

Amazingly, the syrup seems to have been siphoned from the warehouse facility!

Of course journalists have had a field day – see Bloomberg Businessweek “Is Quebec’s Stolen Maple Syrup Stashed in Stomachs?”… “It could be a sweeter Thanksgiving in Quebec…” and CNN‘s “sticky-fingered thieves”…

To round off, a quote from the inimitable Kevin Underhill’s post – “So far, no arrests have been made, but I assume the Mounties are out looking for people surrounded by a cloud of bees.”