CONCORD, N.H. — Maple season is underway, and while the sap is flowing in New Hampshire, money from the federal government is not.
Andrew Chisholm, president of the New Hampshire Maple Producers Association, said he realized a grant he’d originally received in 2023 was frozen when he tried to draw from it in January.
He’d been using the US Department of Agriculture’s Acer grant to promote New Hampshire maple around the world. Thanks to those efforts, he said, sales of the state’s maple syrup had been gaining traction in India, Colombia, and the Caribbean. In those markets, Chisholm said syrup from New Hampshire, which produces about 5 percent of global maple, was competing directly with Canada, the world’s largest producer.
But given the funding freeze, he said, “That work has now come to a halt.”
In late January, the Trump administration issued a memo ordering a freeze on funding for thousands of federal programs. Although the memo was rescinded and the freeze was blocked in court, the government has continued withholding some funding. Chisholm’s USDA grant is among those caught in limbo.
The total grant amount was about $366,000, according to Chisholm, and there was about $62,000 left, with the grant set to expire in September 2025.
“The timing of that couldn’t be any worse, being that it is maple season,” he said.
New Hampshire’s 471 maple farms produced about 164,000 gallons of maple syrup in 2022, according to the 2022 Census of Agriculture. The state is the third largest producer in New England, after Vermont and Maine.
Chisholm said the maple season started a bit later than usual this year because of the frigid temperatures – the sap flows when temperatures are below freezing at night and in the 40s during the day –, but that it should be in full swing as of Wednesday. He’s expecting a good season thanks to snow cover in the woods, which helps sap production.
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Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.