N.Y. cidermakers expect boost from new law allowing direct shipping to consumers

Cidermaker Chris Jackson says that at the height of the pandemic, shipping cider to customers who didn’t want to leave their homes helped keep the century-old Fishkill farms afloat. 

“Obviously, that really saved a lot of cideries through COVID,” he said. “The biggest thing was that it proved that it’s not a big deal to do that. It’s easy to manage. It doesn’t take away from anybody else’s business, and it really helps some of these cideries stay in business.”

Those sales were made possible by the governor’s executive order at the time. But when business started to return to normal and the executive order expired, the ability to ship cider went sour too.

New York Cider Association Executive Director Scott Ramsey says it’s something they’ve wanted to see adopted permanently for years. 

“Many of these very small craft beverages are not necessarily on retail stores,” he said. “We’re excited about the opportunity to build this category through direct shipment so that we can then be more viable to retailers and distributors.” 

This November it will be. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a law this week to give cideries and distilleries the same chance to sell directly to consumers as breweries and wineries. Ramsey says it will be a boon for New York, already home of the most cideries in the nation. 

“For our producers to be able to have the ability to build their businesses, connect directly with their customers in a really meaningful way, that will help build the entire category. That’s just a no brainer for us,” he said. “We want for our producers to have that opportunity.” 

Farms like Fishkill will now be able to build up their cider manufacturing to make it an even bigger part of their business, giving family farmers another option to help their bottom line. 

“I mean, I suppose if you were purely pick your own and people just came and took fruit and left, you could you could make a business of that,” Jackson said. “I think it’s very important and really makes a difference. It makes it more of a full-day destination, as opposed to ‘let’s go do this and then we’ll do something else.’”