Okanagan wineries hopeful new trade agreement won’t hurt too much

It is a trade agreement that could hurt Okanagan wineries.

On Monday, the new trilateral trade deal between Canada, the United States and Mexico was announced, with the B.C. Wine industry being one of the sectors impacted.

READ MORE: B.C. government will no longer be allowed to block U.S. wines from grocery store shelves

The new trade deal will force the provincial government to scrap the law that currently bans imported wines from being sold in grocery stores.

Right now, only B.C. wine is sold at the 29 grocery stores across the province that have licences to do so.

Many wineries, especially smaller ones, have reported a boost in business ever since their wines started being sold in grocery stores.

“It was huge,” Saxon winery owner Paul Graydon said. “Save-On-Foods gave us access to other towns, Prince George, Kamloops, Kelowna, all over, the Lower Mainland and the Island.”

Saxon Winery is based in Summerland.  It’s a family owned business that only produces 2,000 cases of wine annually.

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But in April 2015, when the provincial government changed liquor laws, it started selling its wine in grocery stores.

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Saxon wine is mow sold at 19 Save-On-Foods locations across B.C.

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It’s not only meant more exposure for the winery, but lower overhead costs by not having to ship small amounts of wines to a large number of retailers, as was the case in the past.

“Shipping three cases of wine to one retailer is a lot more expensive than shipping 50 cases to Save- On-Foods or 500 cases as is the situation, so you lower your costs,” Graydon said.

According to the B.C. Wine Institute, grocery stores were responsible for selling a million bottles of B.C. wine in 2017–39 per cent of those bottles came from small wineries like Saxon.

Those kinds of grocery wine sales are now allowing the winery to expand.

“I think we can possibly double our volumes here,” Graydon said. “We are working with another winery to expand our operation to 5,000 cases.”

With that kind of momentum, the winery is keeping a cautious eye on the new trade deal hoping it doesn’t result in B.C. wines being pulled from shelves to make room for imports.

While Graydon says it’s too early to say what the impact may be–he’s counting on consumer support.

“It just means that the local buyer has to decide what he wants to support, international products or local products,” Graydon said.