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With one of the harshest winters to hit the region in recent years, the maple-syrup industry looked to have a promising harvest.

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But hopes were dashed with the rapid return of spring, and now local maple-syrup producers say there will be a shortage of the sweet stuff this season.

Divide producer Andrew Harvey of Shikatehawk Maple Products said the winter season made the spring-harvest outlook positive, with about seven feet of snow in the forest.

But with the quick return of spring, he said, producers are having a tough time harvesting as the sap is not flowing properly. He explained the ideal conditions would be to have warm days and cold nights, with the temperature falling below –5 C at night. Unfortunately, the region is not getting the proper conditions, and Harvey said it is affecting business.

"It is bad," said Harvey, who has been in the business for three years. "This is the worst (the industry) has been in recent years. There is going to be a shortage of maple syrup this year."

Officials at the New Brunswick Maple Syrup Association agreed.

"This is not a banner year," said spokesman Chris Dickie. "Spring came too fast. It got too warm too fast, and as a result we are down about 50 per cent of production and revenues, and that amounts to about $6 million."

Dickie said it is the second consecutive year New Brunswick's anticipated production of four-million pounds was cut in half due to weather conditions.

Earlier this year, association general manager Yvon Poitras said the season looked promising.

He said maple-syrup producers usually begin tapping trees in early March and end by mid April.

Poitras said a good snow cover and the return to a traditional winter was encouraging, but extreme amounts of snow in the province's north, where most of the syrup production occurs, impeded producers.

New Brunswick producers are not the only ones experiencing the pinch.

Harvey added Quebec producers are experiencing a rough spring harvest as well.

At this point, Harvey said, all producers can do is weather the storm.

"We're trying to do what we can to produce what we can," he said.

With files from Richard Duplain, Canadaeast News Service.