Small cider producers and distilleries in Ontario will share $4.9 million in aid over the next three years to help purchase new equipment, hire more staff and expand their production.

The support program will provide up to $220,000 a year to eligible producers helping them to make cider and spirits such as vodka and gin on a larger scale, Finance Minister Charles Sousa announced Tuesday.

“Ontario’s cider and spirits industry is growing at an exciting pace,” he said at the Summerhill LCBO store with Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Jeff Leal.

The money will provide “additional tools to help them succeed,” Sousa added.

Cider sales at the LCBO grew 54 per cent last year to $5.1 million, with the industry in total selling $12.3 million, including sales at cider producers.

Sales by craft distilleries at their own stores, and in the LCBO, totaled $5.5 million, a 62-per-cent increase over the prior year.

In another change, smaller spirits producers will soon be allowed to deliver their products directly to bars and restaurants.

The subsidies will total up be up to 74 cents per litre of cider and up to $4.42 per litre of spirits on eligible sales.

“This is tremendous news,” said Thomas Wilson, chair of the Ontario Craft Cider Association, which represents 27 of the 43 cider producers in Ontario.

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There are 230 apple growers supplying the cider industry.

“The program will ultimately result in more apple trees in the ground and increased rural economic activity from farm to glass . . . . This is a great step to growing our world-class cider industry,” added Wilson, owner of Spirit Tree Estate Cidery in Caledon.

Spirits Canada, representing major distillers, said the support program is “a tacit admission that taxes, levies and mark-ups on spirits in Ontario are excessive and constitute a significant barrier to entry.”

Chief executive Jan Wescott said the tax load on distillers is twice as high as the one on breweries and four times higher than the tax load on wineries. He called for aid for all distillers.

Ontario has roughly a dozen small distillers in Toronto, Guelph, Barrie, Picton and Niagara.

The new measures follow the government’s move to allow 130 grocery stores to sell beer and cider. Up to 70 can also sell wine.

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There are plans to allow beer and cider in 450 grocery stores and wine in 300.

Previously, the government allowed Ontario fruit cider and wines to be sold in farmer’s markets.

Small craft breweries have been pushing for permission to sell beer at farmer’s markets. This is particularly true of brewers, who don’t have their own premises and brew on contract at other breweries. They say they need greater customer exposure to grow.

Right now, these contract brewers are limited to selling beer at bars and restaurants, where their visibility is limited to a draft tap or a mention on a menu.

Sousa said no new measures are planned for beer in farmer’s markets.