Crush 2019

In the original NAFTA negotiation
and agreement, in exchange for
dropping tariffs and opening the
Canadian market to U.S. wines, B.C.-
only licences were grandfathered
in to recognize the importance of
supporting local B.C. wine. The
British Columbia Wine Institute
(BCWI) oversees the operation of,
as a cooperative for all B.C. grape
wineries, 21 similar licences allowing
for all certified 100 per cent B.C.
grape wines to be sampled and sold
off site.
The Washington State Liquor and
Cannabis Board allows Washington
wineries two additional locations
off site for sampling and selling
wine of their own production. B.C.’s
provincial government has yet to
issue individual B.C. winery offsite
licences, which is where the
BCWI ones come in. In April 2014,
the B.C. government allowed the
BCWI the option to move these
licences to grocery store shelves
to accommodate the growth of
B.C. wineries and give them better
access to consumers. To date, 18
have done so, with three remaining
independent, as per the BCWI.
The recent USMCA ruling continues
to recognize the provenance of
grandfathered B.C.-only co-op
industry licences. Miles Prodan,
president and CEO of the BCWI,
mentions that the B.C. government
also allowed other liquor store
licences to move into grocery,
including import wine, spirits,
etc.; though for social and health
responsibilities, these were
mandated to be store-within-store
format (with access control, separate
check-out, etc.). To date, no private
liquor store or grocery has taken
advantage of that opportunity.
Under the new USMCA, B.C. will be required to
eliminate its rule which allows only B.C. wines
on grocery shelves.
similar number of grocery stores
on-shelf, and note that, outside of our
BCWI wine stores, B.C. wine already
competes with import wines in more
than 1,300 liquor retail outlets across
the province where we enjoy great
buy local support,” says Prodan.
There has been tremendous growth
of U.S. wine sales in Canada under
the Canada United States Federal
Trade Agreement (CUSFTA) and
NAFTA, and the U.S. wine sales value
to Canada has grown by $485 million
since 1988. The BCWI mentions that
U.S. wine sales in Canada have grown
by an average of 13 per cent every
year for the past 28 years, resulting
in more than doubling its wine sale
market shares to 14.2 per cent. By
comparison, Canadian premium
bottled wine sales in the U.S. market
have grown to $8.4 million and
represents a negligible share of total
wine sales in the United States.
Canadian wine production volume
is one-sixteenth the size of the U.S.
industry. The province of B.C. said
it plans to work with the federal
government to resolve this issue
in a manner that best protects the
province’s wine industry.
“B.C. worked closely with the
federal government and agreed to
amend the measures relating to
wine in grocery stores. This policy
has been controversial for some
time,” said Premier John Horgan
and Bruce Ralston, Minister of
Jobs, Trade and Technology, in a
statement on October 18, 2018. “We
knew this was a problem that we
were going to have to fix. We will
continue to work with the Canadian
government to resolve it in a
manner that best protects our wine
industry.” o
We stock all supplies, ingredients and equipment
needed to make or test Wine, Beer, Cider and Spirits.
Serving the professionals and amateurs alike.
WE SHIP ALL ACROSS CANADA.
“The BCWI has no objection to
import wines having access to a
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