The threat after the bill on farm sales • “Inhibits entrepreneurial spirit”
At Lottenlund outside Helsingborg there are 45,000 vines and right now 15,000 liters of wine are in storage.
Here they have invested in wine tourism with, among other things, wine tastings. When farm sales can now be allowed, they plan to sell directly to customers from June 1.
– It’s absolutely fantastic, says Tina Berthelsen, wine farmer.
Criticism of the law’s limitations
But farm sales will be regulated, which has sparked reactions. Among other things, it is only permitted to sell a few bottles and only in connection with knowledge-raising visitor arrangements.
– How much you can buy and precisely that it must be combined with an activity such as a vineyard tour, microbrewery tour and so on. It might inhibit a little. We may not create this entrepreneurial spirit that we would otherwise have liked, says Tina Berthelsen.
The organization Företagarna shares the criticism, above all against the introduction of a volume ceiling for the annual production in order to sell alcohol.
– What the volume ceiling does is that if you become too good, you have to stop farm sales. The idea is that this will draw people to the countryside. But if you get to the point where you do that, the demand for the product will become greater and all of a sudden go over the roof and then you have to stop, says Erik Östman, expert on regulatory simplification at Företagarna.
May have consequences
The entrepreneurs believe that these restrictions do not have the effect that the policy wants to have.
– The consequences will be that significantly fewer companies than politicians hope for will be able to use this in a good way. We risk that above all the smaller breweries and distilleries in the big cities who have the opportunity to have this type of event in a simple way, will be able to benefit from this, while the countryside will see that quite a few companies will finally be able to use that, says Erik Östman, expert on regulatory simplification Företagarna.
The law will also be limited in time to six years.
– I think we need to start with it and then both the consumers and us producers show that we can handle ourselves and then it will loosen up over time, says Tina Berthelsen.