A bottle of Canadian cider showing up on a shelf in London might not sound like big news. But it’s part of a deliberate strategy, backed by federal money, to make sure Canadian cider doesn’t have all its eggs in one basket.
For decades, the United States has been Canada’s obvious trading partner. It’s right next door, the two countries share deep business ties, and for Canadian companies looking beyond their home market, heading south has long seemed like the natural first move.
But uncertainty over U.S. tariffs has helped push Canada’s cider industry to think more broadly about where its future customers might be. That thinking is now turning into action.
Cider Canada has secured federal support for a nearly C$197,000, two-year project aimed at developing new markets for Canadian cider. Plans include building relationships with buyers outside Canada, bringing overseas buyers in to meet producers, and organizing a trade mission to the United Kingdom.
For Cider Canada Executive Director Barry Rooke, the goal isn’t to turn away from the United States. It’s to make Canadian cider less dependent on what happens in any single market.
“This isn’t about abandoning [the U.S.]. It is about resilience,” Rooke told eCiderNews.
Why This Matters for Ciderville
Cider is still a small beverage category, and most of its producers are small businesses at the mercy of forces they can’t control: tariffs, alcohol regulations, distribution systems, and the decisions of much larger beverage companies.
Canada’s approach is an attempt to build strength through connection.
Rather than expecting individual cideries to figure out exporting on their own, Cider Canada is pooling government resources and industry relationships. Rather than betting on one neighboring country for growth, it’s cultivating relationships elsewhere, while also trying to make it easier for producers to sell across Canada’s own provincial borders.
The bigger lesson for Ciderville: resilience doesn’t come from finding one perfect market. It comes from having enough routes to market that producers have somewhere else to turn when one becomes difficult.
The Warning Came in 2025
This didn’t happen overnight.
In February 2025, as the threat of U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods created uncertainty for businesses on both sides of the border, Cider Canada publicly laid out how it might respond.
Tariffs cut both ways for cider makers. They could make Canadian cider harder to sell in the U.S., while also raising costs for producers who buy equipment and supplies from American companies.
Cider Canada said it would lean more on Canadian suppliers, work to reduce barriers to selling cider between provinces, and explore export opportunities in Europe and Asia.
More than a year later, that strategy is taking shape.
“Diversifying markets makes sense for Canadian producers regardless, and the UK has its own strategic value as a mature cider market,” Rooke said.
But tariffs added urgency. Rooke said U.S. trade uncertainty accelerated that diversification work and made the risk of relying too heavily on one export market impossible to ignore.
Why the UK?
For cider, the United Kingdom isn’t just another country on a map.
It has one of the world’s most established cider cultures, along with a mature network of producers, distributors and importers. That makes it an appealing place for Canadian producers to pursue new customers and learn more about competing internationally.
Cider makers appear interested. Close to 15 producers have already expressed interest in a potential UK mission, although the current plan would accommodate around seven producers plus a mission leader.
Cider Canada is exploring possible connections with CraftCon and the London Wine Fair, along with working with Canadian trade officials in Britain and potentially showcasing Canadian cider at Canada House.
None of those details is locked in yet.
The point isn’t simply to fly a group of cider makers to Britain and hope somebody buys a bottle.
Great Cider Isn’t Enough
For a small cidery, exporting isn’t as simple as finding someone overseas who likes the cider.
There are shipping costs, regulations, importers and distributors to work with, and the producer has to be able to supply enough cider if a buyer says yes.
As Rooke puts it, “Having an excellent product doesn’t solve” those challenges.
That’s why Cider Canada isn’t treating this as a group trip to Britain. The work includes market research, identifying potential buyers and helping producers prepare to export.
“The goal isn’t simply to take producers to the UK and hope somebody places an order,” Rooke said.
Nearly C$197,000 to Put the Plan Into Action
Canada’s federal government is helping turn the idea into something concrete.
The project, Elevating Canadian Cider: A Strategic Initiative to Expand into International Markets, has received approval for up to C$98,450 through a federal program that helps Canadian agricultural and food businesses develop markets.
With eligible Cider Canada resources and industry and participant contributions, the total approved budget is C$196,900. The project runs through March 31, 2028.
For cider drinkers, the bureaucratic details matter less than what the funding makes possible: moving from talking about diversification to researching markets, finding buyers and putting Canadian producers in front of them.
“There is a fairly direct line from what we said in February 2025 to what we’re now putting into practice,” Rooke said.
The initiative could eventually extend to mead producers as Cider Canada develops its new Mead Canada / Hydromel Canada committee, although how mead will fit into the federally supported program is still being determined.
Related eCiderNews: https://ciderchat.com/mead-canada-launch-cider-canada/
Canada Wants Buyers to Come North, Too
The strategy runs in both directions.
Rather than expecting every small producer to independently track down buyers abroad, Cider Canada plans to bring some of those buyers to Canadian cider instead, through showcases, business meetings, networking and potentially cidery visits.
A pilot is planned for the Ottawa region involving international groups and consular offices, with a larger trade-focused program targeted for fall 2027 around National Cider Month.
This isn’t federal funding for a public festival. It’s designed to put the people who make cider in the same room as the people who might buy and sell it.
There Are Borders Inside Canada, Too
The strategy isn’t only about looking overseas.
Canada’s provinces set their own rules for alcohol sales, which can make it surprisingly difficult for a small producer in one province to reach customers in another. Cider Canada wants to chip away at those barriers while also developing opportunities abroad and encouraging a more Canadian supply chain.
The response to U.S. trade uncertainty, in other words, isn’t just “sell cider somewhere else.”
It’s “create more options, period.”
From Tariffs to Resilience
The changing Canada-U.S. relationship has been felt elsewhere in Ciderville.
Cider Canada has stepped back from some formal arrangements with U.S. organizations, and Rooke said Canadian participation at both CiderCon and GLINTCAP, the Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Competition, declined significantly. He cautioned against attributing those declines to any single cause.
Rooke said conversations with American cider colleagues have generally reflected an understanding of why Canadian producers are reconsidering where they put their resources.
That’s an important distinction.
This isn’t a Canadian-versus-American cider story.
It’s about what happens when uncertainty in a major trading relationship reminds a small industry that it needs more than one path to market.
A Canadian producer is in a stronger position, Rooke argues, when there are more opportunities within Canada and relationships with buyers elsewhere, rather than having its future tied to one market.
He sees a direct line between Cider Canada’s February 2025 warning and what’s happening now. The difference is that federal funding gives the association resources to act on it.
By 2028, success won’t necessarily mean Canadian cider has found a replacement for the United States.
It will mean it doesn’t need one: more cider sold across Canada, more relationships with buyers overseas, more producers who understand how exporting works, and more places where someone might encounter a bottle of Canadian cider.
For cider drinkers, that’s the simplest way to understand Canada’s strategy: more roads leading from the orchard to the glass.
Additional Reading from Cider Canada: Cider Canada Expands National Role With Launch of Mead Canada
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