New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed a new law allowing small distilleries, cideries and makers of mead to ship directly to consumers.
For nearly 20 years wineries in New York state have been able to ship their product directly to consumers. The bill signed by the governor on Monday extends that ability to craft distilleries and cideries.
New York Farm Bureau CEO Deanna Fox says it has been a multi-year effort to get the Direct-to-Consumer Shipping Bill enacted.
“The economic impacts look to be allowing cideries and distilleries to keep more of their profit in their pockets. They’re not having to rely on a middleman to market, distribute, ship their products. They can do that direct on their own websites. And also it just allows them to maintain more of a direct avenue for sales to the consumers that appreciate those products. So they’re able to sell hypothetically more products and therefore boost their bottom lines.”
New York Cider Association Executive Director Scott Ramsey says the new law recognizes the emergence and importance of small distillers, cideries and growers in the agricultural economy.
“We’re talking about apple growers across the state who are producing New York cider. You know, we’re a leader in the industry and so this allows us to expand the already $1.7 billion total economic impact we have in the state into something that’s even more meaningful and more impactful, not only to the state but to their local communities.”
Nine Pin Ciderworks of Albany was the state’s first farm cidery founded in 2013. Co-owner and General Manager Sonya del Peral says the new law will allow them to reach consumers where distribution is unavailable.
“We have a lot of very small farm-based cideries that don’t necessarily get distribution. And we play a very important role in the state’s agritourism industry. We have people coming through visiting our tasting rooms who really like our ciders and they leave, they’re unable to find the ciders. And you know it’s also a consumer choice issue. The modern-day consumer, frankly, does a lot of online shopping and it’s a whole new channel of trade for our industry.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic the distilleries and cideries were given temporary permission for Direct-to-Consumer sales. del Peral believes that was critical to passage of this permanent law.
“The old arguments against this tended to be that we’re going to negatively affect the distributors and the retailers. And so this Executive Order provided like an experimental period and the collective data show that there was no negative effects on the distributors and retailers during that period of time that shipping was permitted.”
According to data provided by the New York Farm Bureau as of 2023 there were 276 licensed distillers and 18 licensed meaderies and as of 2020 there were 125 licensed cideries in the state.
The new law takes effect in 90 days.
