Give New Yorkers the opportunity to buy more state-produced maple products and New York maple-syrup producers could reap profits five times greater than what they make now.

So says Stephen Childs, an extension associate in natural resources at Cornell and one of the university's maple experts. "Selling syrup in retail packaging improves producer income by 40 to 100 percent. Converting syrup to confections can improve income four- to fivefold," he says.

To help New York's maple-syrup producers learn how to make new products and market them, eight Cornell agricultural and marketing experts affiliated with the New York Ag Innovation Center (NYAIC), which is partially funded by Cornell, are teaming up with the New York State Maple Producers Association to offer a series of workshops.

The NYAIC is an initiative of the nonprofit, farmer-led New York Farm Viability Institute (NYFVI), which is providing funding for the project.

"A significant amount (40 percent) of New York syrup leaves the state in bulk barrels. I would like to see that syrup made into higher value products that can be sold right here in New York," says Dwayne Hill, president of the New York State Maple Producers Association. He notes that millions of urban and suburban New Yorkers do not have access to syrup made and marketed mainly in New York's rural areas.

His goal is for maple producers to work together to supply large grocery chains with a line of such value-added maple products as maple cream, sugar, candy and suckers. "No one producer is large enough to do this alone," he says. "But first, we need value-added workshops coupled with product research and a handbook outlining better quality standards for our producers."

The team is conducting research to determine the most marketable value-added maple products. It also will evaluate tools for producers to use for quality testing of their products and will publish maple value-added product guidelines.

The NYFVI project also will offer hands-on workshops at seven sites across the state starting in September 2006 to provide producers with the opportunity to make value-added products and test their products against a quality standard.

"Through the workshops, producers will learn about new products and techniques, and how to improve product uniformity and quality and evaluate the economics of making, pricing and selling their products," says Brian Chabot, director of the Cornell Maple Program.

Selected producers will conduct production and marketing cost evaluations to assist the development of pricing and profit training for other producers in a second round of workshops in 2007. At the same time, five Cornell Cooperative Extension agents will be training to better assist maple producers with value-added product development.

A longer-range project goal is to form a cooperative marketing group of maple producers to sell value-added products to urban and suburban retailers.

"We believe producers can increase their incomes by 10 to 30 percent in two to three years," says Peter Smallidge, director of Cornell's Arnot Research Forest.

In addition to Childs, Chabot and Smallidge, members of the team include Michael Farrell, director of Cornell's Uihlein Maple Research Station at Lake Placid; Olga Padilla-Zakour, director of the Food Venture Center at Cornell's New York State Agricultural Research Station at Geneva; Steve Richards, director of NY FarmNet/NYFarmLink; and Brian Henehan and Judith Barry, both extension associates in applied economics and management at Cornell who provide business structure assistance for value-added ventures through NYAIC.

The NYFVI seeks to connect agricultural and green industry producers, farm organizations, educators and researchers statewide. Through its Ag Innovation Center, NYFVI makes available to farmers and green producers a diverse network of farm advisers to increase the sales of New York agricultural products.

Kara Dunn is a freelance writer in Mannsville, N.Y.