Good afternoon to you all.
My name is Normand St-Amour. I am one of the shareholders and not the president of the Eau d'érable Oviva company. Five shareholders created this company.
For seven years the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers and Laval University in Québec, via its research institute, carried out research to find a process that would completely preserve maple water without bacteria and without micro-organisms.
In fact maple water is a vegetal water that is directly tapped from the tree. It is by boiling this water that we obtain the syrup. Our company wanted to preserve, at the molecular level, all of the water components, that is to say electrolytes, minerals, antioxidants, and long-chain natural sugars including complex sugars. This is chemistry, which is my field of study. Complex sugars must be perfectly intact and unmodified by an aggressive process. After seven years of research with the university, we found the right process and have been able to sell our product on the market.
I would like to briefly explain that our product was developed in order to become a food product that would enhance flavours. The complex vegetal chains of natural sugars have the power to hide bitterness. Where it is used, our product enhances the flavours of other foods. That was the objective of the research carried out by the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers and Laval University.
As for me, because of my studies in food chemistry, I wanted to see to it that this excellent new health product would keep blood sugar levels constant in school children and athletes. Our product is beneficial for those who live with type 2 diabetes, for children who go to school, and for high-level athletes who train and do not want to consume refined sugars that can be found in, for example, Gatorade and other similar products. Our product is not only effective, it is also very good for your health.
Approximately 200 ml of maple water provides a regular quantity of glucose in the blood in order to feed the brain. The brain needs a stable level of glucose in order to remain alert. It does not require much glucose, but the glucose it does require has to be stable. Our product would also be excellent for the members of the House of Commons so they can stay awake throughout debates. Our product is therefore not only useful in the sports world.
Vegetal water is very much enjoyed in Asia and in Europe, especially in northern Europe. In Belarus for example, 25 million litres of birch water is sold annually. This also contains electrolytes and minerals as is the case for maple water, however it is less sugary. There is less available glucose. Our product is of a higher quality and there is a good demand in the field.
I wanted to explain our product to you, however, basically, I'm here to highlight certain problems linked to the export of this product.
Asian markets, especially, request minimum available quantities of the product, amounting to millions of litres. Canadian companies must therefore maintain a minimum inventory level of millions of litres, which represents millions of dollars. It is only then that these companies can meet the demands of the Asian market and the north European market. These two markets are crazy for this product.
Our company was created two years ago, and every week, we receive several requests for exports from international buyers who want us to guarantee that we can provide them with a given quantity of our product. In order to do so, we always have to have reserves of two to five million litres of the product.
That is a very high demand. In Quebec, we sell several tens of thousands of litres. The revenue from our normal sales cannot justify that kind of inventory.
Maple water is like coconut water, but it is Canadian and Québécois. We have it here and it really tastes better than coconut water. It has better qualities and at the same time it can be used by athletes. Actually, we provided two Montreal Canadiens players with maple water for their training to see if it would be able to satisfy an athlete in sustained training sessions. They said that they were able to perform high level professional training with maple water. It contains enough electrolytes and sugar that an athlete can perform well. So, this water is of better quality, it tastes better, and it can compete with coconut water internationally.
Let's talk about reserves. In the Laurentians alone—and the Laurentians are a small area compared to Canada as a whole—we could produce 2.4 billion litres of water annually if we tapped all of the maple trees. That is probably not feasible, but it is possible. We could produce billions of litres of maple water. We are able to produce and export this kind of product. Ninety percent of our maple water will be sold outside of the country. This is money that would be coming from other countries.
My first request is the following: would it be possible to get support to have sufficient water reserves so that we could develop new markets and have enough water reserves to meet demand?
My second request is simply to provide entrepreneurs with language courses so that they can talk more easily with our exporters. Could we have courses that would be suited to someone with a very busy schedule? We are not currently able to get these courses.
How much time do I have left, Mr. Chair? I assume that my 10-minute period is almost up.