KELOWNA — The B.C. government is ringing in new changes to liquor sales beginning April 1, 2015 — one of those changes that have the Wine Institute of California crying foul. The dispute is over a new initiative to allow grocery stores to sell wine, but only B.C. produced VQA-certified wines.
“California has misunderstood what this is all about,” says Myles Prodan, President of the B.C. Wine Institute.
Prodan says only VQA license holders will have the opportunity to sell directly in grocery stores — and those licenses are limited.
“It’s not the instance of hundreds of new licenses or anything like that. It is respecting the NAFTA agreement and the status quo.”
The new liquor sale changes don’t mean all VQA stores will be jumping on board and moving to grocery shelves. Some are doing just fine on their own.
“It has to make sense for us. It has to make sense for the grocery store. So it’s not as though there’s going to be one in every corner,” says Prodan.
Despite the complaints from California wine producers, there’s no indication from the provincial government that it intends to back down from expanding B.C. wine sales to grocery stores.
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