Booze boost: N.B. alcohol producers see 'silver lining' in tariff war with U.S.
N.B. Liquor says local product sales up 6 per cent this fiscal year
Trent Jewett, with help from his wife and son, has been building his brand of flavour-infused vodka in Harvey since Big Fiddle Still was incorporated in 2018.
This year is proving to be his best yet. With a 26 per cent jump in sales, Jewett has his foot in the door to take over the market currently dominated by Sour Puss, an American liqueur used in cocktails and martinis that is now unavailable in New Brunswick.
"Within the next couple of weeks, you'll have a green apple sour, you'll have a red raspberry sour, and you'll have a prohibition blues sour, which is very exciting for us," he said.
Jewett is one of several New Brunswick craft alcohol producers experiencing a spike in sales in the wake of an ongoing tit-for-tat tariff war between Canada and the United States.
Since early March, most provinces, New Brunswick included, have pulled American liquor from store shelves in retaliation.
That's left a gaping hole in a market that smaller producers are racing to fill with local products.
Jewett isn't wasting any time making the most of the sudden, unexpected demand for locally produced craft alcohol.
"People are proud of craft, very supportive of craft more so than ever," he said. "They're buckling down and looking after the ones that are close to them in their communities. And I think that's fantastic."
N.B. Liquor said overall, local producers are seeing a six per cent increase in sales over this time last year, not including big producers like Molson and Moosehead.
Spokesperson Tanya Greer said in a statement "the co-ordinated tariff response created more space for local, Canadian and international products" but stopped short of connecting the dots to the tariff war.
"Customers have generally reacted positively to this change. In terms of new trends in buying habits, it's too early to say with certainty but early signs look favourable."
Geoff Loukes is the owner/operator of Sculpture Hospitality and manages inventory for more than 60 bars and restaurants across the Maritimes. He isn't afraid to say the recent removal of U.S. products is behind the bump, and said it could create "life-changing opportunities for local producers."
"I've seen a lot of my clients actually pull products off the shelves and redo their menus to support Canadian products," he said.
Loukes said producers like Big Fiddle Still now have an open market to expand their business, and become the mainstay — regardless of what happens down the road in the trade war.
"It really has opened a huge window that people didn't really, for the most part, realize was closed to local suppliers. And the knowledge is now there — that this was at my back door and I never realized it."
Restaurants and bars making the switch
Jennie Wilson said the removal of U.S. alcohol has been the biggest disrupter for her two Fredericton restaurants, 11th Mile and Coastline Pizza, since the trade war began.
"11th mile is a cocktail bar," she said. "But being forced to refocus on Canadian products, it's not a huge hardship."
With American-made bourbon now off the table, Wilson said, "We took two of our top selling cocktails, which would be the whiskey sour and the New York sour, and we messed around with Canadian rye until we found something that we thought rang the same bell and would really work."
Wilson said they've also had to rejig their wine list, "but again, it just forced us to look around and see what alternatives are there."
Wilson said they have always supported New Brunswick producers, but now Canadian alcohol makes up an even greater portion of their product list.
N.B. wineries changing perceptions
Zach Everett, a winemaker and co-owner of the Magnetic Hill Winery in Moncton, said they've also seen a recent bump in sales, more in line with the six per cent growth seen by N.B. Liquor, but changing perceptions takes time.
The industry is still young in New Brunswick, he said, and it takes education, awareness and about "20, 30 or 40 years to convince consumers of what is possible locally."
Everett is hopeful the silver lining in the tariff war will be an acceleration of that process, and a bigger slice of the wine-producing market.
"The U.S. sells over a billion dollars of wine in Canada per year. And I'd love to see more Canadian products take up that potential gap in the market right now."
He said by comparison, Nova Scotia has a market share over 10 per cent, while New Brunswick's is sitting at two per cent. And across the country, he said Canadians have an abysmal record of buying their own wine.
"The initial thing is to get over the perception that New Brunswick makes bad wine," he said. "We've been a little, maybe too timid to humble brag, I guess, about some of the amazing awards that we've won over the last few years with our products," said Everett.
"Once you've changed that perception and kind of challenged some of those assumptions, I 100 per cent know and believe that when people start buying their wines on a more regular basis, they're building habits that will last for a lifetime."
Cross-border barriers
Inter-provincial trade barriers have also come under the microscope since the U.S. tariffs came into effect, and restaurant owners like Wilson say it's been a thorn in their side for a long time, making it difficult to access Canadian products.
"Fast action on that one would really help small businesses in terms of helping us to look for those replacements and being able to get them on our shelves quickly and easily."
Last month, Premier Susan Holt signed memorandums of understanding with Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador, to eliminate that red tape, particularly those barriers affecting alcohol sales.
Holt said she is currently in discussions with Quebec, which is New Brunswick's largest trading partner, as well as Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island to make similar agreements.
Holt said she's optimistic she'll find a similar "willingness to remove as many barriers as possible" when she has those discussions with other Canadian provinces.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
