HALIFAX, NS – The Halifax Chronicle-Herald reports that the Nova Scotia government has announced an upcoming reduction to a markup fee that is collected from craft breweries in the province based on their sales to customers.
The Retail Sales Markup Allocation currently mandates that all craft breweries in the province pay the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation a fee of 50 cents per litre of beer sold directly out of the brewery. This controversial fee is the subject of a lawsuit filed against the NSLC earlier this year by Unfiltered Brewing, and was also raised as one of the 10 biggest challenges faced by Nova Scotia breweries in an open letter to the provincial government released by Big Spruce Brewing in October.
As of April 1st 2017, the fee will be changed to five per cent of wholesale costs of sales, a shift that is expected to reduce the annual amount paid by Nova Scotia breweries from $1.2 million to $400,000.
During his announcement at Garrison Brewing on Tuesday, Premier Stephen McNeil also suggested that further changes to help the rapidly growing craft brewing industry in the province will be issued in the spring.
For more details, see the full article.