Value-added products: yield and price
Turn a batch of syrup into packages and a price: how much product it makes, what each one costs with syrup, packaging, and labor, and what to charge.
01 · Inputs
Pick the product, enter the syrup you cook and what it made, then your costs per package and the margin you want.
The syrup has no value entered, so the cost leaves out the most expensive ingredient.
02 · Result
Suggested price per package
–
- Cost per package
- $0.00
- Margin (profit ÷ price)
- 50%
- Markup (profit ÷ cost)
- –
- Packages from the batch
- 14.8
- Batch yield
- 7.41 lb (manual figure)
- Syrup in each package
- 8.6 fl oz
- Syrup cost per package
- $0.00
Yields vary with the syrup, the weather, and the finish temperature. Weigh a few batches of your own before you print a price list.
03How this is calculated
Granulated sugar is almost all of the syrup’s solids, so the calculator starts from the syrup’s weight and sugar content: about 7.41 lb per gallon at 66.9 °Brix. The North American Maple Syrup Producers Manual rounds this to about 2 pounds per quart (p. 9-14), which is a little high. The manual also gives maple jelly as seven 8-ounce jars per half gallon (p. 9-28) and coated nuts as 7 fluid ounces of syrup per pound of nuts, 8 for batches under 2.5 lb (p. 9-27). It gives no yield for cream, molded candy, or taffy, so those need your own figure from a weighed batch.
Cost per package is the syrup in it at its bulk value, plus packaging, labor, and anything else you add. The suggested price is cost divided by one minus the margin. Margin is profit as a share of the price; markup is profit as a share of the cost. A 50% margin is a 100% markup, and a 40% margin is a 67% markup, so check which one a buyer or a price list means.
The manual says turning syrup into other products can double or triple what it returns (p. 9-2), and elsewhere that packing and confections raise value 35 to 100% or more over bulk (p. 11-12). Both are before the added labor, equipment, and marketing, which is why labor per package is worth filling in.
In many places, turning syrup into sugar or confections to sell needs added permits or licensing, and the kitchen may have to meet building codes. Check with your local health department or food processing authority before you sell.
Sources
- Ch. 9, granulated maple sugar (one quart of syrup yields about 2 pounds; sugar that still creeps is about 2 percent moisture) and maple cream (made by further concentrating syrup by evaporation)NAMSPM 3rd ed. (2022)p. 9-14
- Ch. 9, "Maple Coated Nuts" (7 fl oz of syrup per pound of nuts; 8 fl oz per pound for batches under 2.5 lb)NAMSPM 3rd ed. (2022)p. 9-27
- Ch. 9, "Maple Jelly" (a half gallon of syrup yields seven 8-ounce jars)NAMSPM 3rd ed. (2022)p. 9-28
- Ch. 9, Introduction (converting syrup into other products can double or triple its return; the added value must cover the added labor, equipment and marketing)NAMSPM 3rd ed. (2022)p. 9-2
- Ch. 11, "Diversity of Products Produced and Marketed" (retail packing and confections raise value per gallon 35 to 100 percent or more over bulk)NAMSPM 3rd ed. (2022)p. 11-12
- Ch. 9, facility and equipment requirements (check local health and food processing rules; many jurisdictions require added permits or licensing to turn syrup into another product)NAMSPM 3rd ed. (2022)pp. 9-9 and 9-11
- Weights per United States Gallon and Weights per Cubic Foot of Sugar SolutionsSnyder, C.F., Hammond, L.D. (1946). National Bureau of Standards Circular C457Table 1, pp. 3–34: true specific gravity 20 °C/20 °C and pounds per US gallon in air at 20 °C, by tenth degree Brix; Table 2 for water
Know what the syrup in each batch really cost
Sapline keeps the syrup side of the books: cost tracking that works out your cost per gallon from logged expenses, retail syrup sales by lot, channel, and price, and bulk sales by buyer with each buyer’s posted prices. Value the syrup here at that cost instead of a guess.
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