Maple Syrup Market Audit: Exporting to France

Introduction and Product Overview

The market audit process evaluates a product and its potential in a chosen target market. This audit examines the prospects for exporting maple syrup from the United States to France, covering the product itself, the French market environment, advertising practices, pricing strategy, and the competitive landscape.

Maple syrup is an all-natural, organic sweetener. In North America, it is poured over pancakes, waffles, and other breakfast items, and it is also used in baking. It is at its most versatile in Quebec, where an entire cuisine is based on using maple syrup as an ingredient in virtually everything, though such uses are not common elsewhere (Bain, 2012). In France, maple syrup has an advantage as a versatile sweetener with a distinct character that differs from both sugar and honey — its only real competitors in European supermarkets.

Maple syrup lacks the versatility of sugar or honey, but it is an organic, all-natural product with a complex and refined character. In that respect, it is entirely suited to the French palate. French consumers view maple syrup through both a flavor lens and an organic lens, and both have cachet in the French market. That said, France remains a largely untapped market for maple syrup, ranking only fifth among destinations for Canadian exports and lagging behind the UK and Germany (AGR, 2013). This is despite France having imported maple syrup since the era of Nouvelle-France. Consumers are familiar enough with the idea of maple sugar to try the product, and the abundance of cooking information available in French removes a further barrier to experimenting with unique uses. Price, however, remains a typical barrier, as the process of making maple syrup is slow and expensive.

France is a country in northern Europe and one of the largest European nations by both land area and population. The country has a well-developed transportation infrastructure. Major ports are located at Le Havre in France and at Rotterdam in the Netherlands, which is only a couple of hundred miles from Paris. There are no trade barriers between these countries. With the world's ninth-largest railway network — seven of the eight countries with larger networks are substantially bigger by area — and the eighth-largest road network, France possesses a modern, sophisticated transportation infrastructure (CIA World Factbook, 2014).

The French Market

French consumers love sugar but use relatively little maple syrup. France ranks sixth in the world in total maple syrup consumption, though few countries consume maple syrup at all. The United States, which exports roughly one-tenth of what Canada does, is not a significant exporter of maple syrup to France (Holz-Clause, 2014). Maple syrup is typically found in high-end food shops and is difficult to find in mainstream supermarkets. French consumers prefer richer grades of maple syrup, as is true of most consumers globally. There is no known market for Grade C syrup, which is normally used only for cooking.

Maple syrup is distributed through specialty stores. While the product is known, its high price means it is considered a luxury item. The fact that it is always imported adds further cost. This creates a challenge in understanding small-store distribution channels, but it also opens the door for maple syrup to be sold through a large retailer — a market currently unserved. Such a sale could be direct, for example to Carrefour, rather than through distributors. Reaching small stores would likely require importers and distributors, which adds costs and limits distribution options outside major urban centers.

Maple syrup is a niche product in France and, as such, receives virtually no advertising. It also receives little marketing in its much larger domestic market. There is little brand recognition for maple syrup, which is harvested by small farmers and sold either through cooperatives or through small buyer/marketers. As a result, there is almost no brand loyalty for maple syrup, and most consumers are unlikely to have any loyalty to a particular point of origin. At best, consumers will have a grade preference.

Because maple syrup is a premium product, there is very little promotion or discounting. Evidence suggests that premium products should not be discounted, as doing so undermines their premium status. Consumers who buy maple syrup in France tend to be wealthy, and because they are purchasing a unique product for its health benefits or distinctive character, they have low price sensitivity. This means that any marketing should focus on product attributes rather than price-based enticement (Sethuraman & Tellis, 1991).

Maple syrup is expensive to produce and must be shipped to Europe in liquid form. Maple trees are tapped for their sap in the spring in a process that is entirely weather-dependent. The sap is then boiled down into syrup before packaging. Because maple syrup is fermentable, care must be taken to prevent fermentation during transport. Pasteurization for shipping is common, which further adds to the cost. As a result, there is only one viable pricing option in Europe: positioning it as a luxury product.

Advertising and Media

As a sweetener, pure maple syrup is therefore not a viable proposition for most French consumers, and it has made its way into the market only at the high end, as a seldom-used luxury item. Discounts are rarely applied, as they are uncommon on luxury goods generally, and because maple syrup is a unique product with no real competitors.

Maple syrup is essentially a unique product whose distinctive characteristics are unmatched by other sweeteners. As such, it has no true competitors. It does, however, compete indirectly with other sweeteners, which are invariably cheaper and less refined in character. The only sweetener that is equally natural, organic, and uniquely flavored is probably agave syrup, which also originates from a plant native to the Americas and is even rarer in Europe than maple syrup.

For a U.S. exporter, then, the only real competition is Canadian maple syrup. Quebec has been sending maple syrup to France for hundreds of years. Maple syrup itself is a largely undifferentiated product — a commodity with little to no brand loyalty and few distinguishing features between types. Canada currently sends $8.2 million worth of maple syrup to France. Total U.S. maple syrup exports, by comparison, stand at $18.8 million, directed primarily to Canada and Japan. To compete with Canada would require economies of scale sufficient to bring down the cost per gallon. Shipping in bulk for packaging in Europe might help the United States achieve those economies of scale and lower overall costs.