UDPATE: The American Craft Spirits Association said that Health & Human Services has withdrawn the FDA’s scheduled $14,060 fees to craft distillers who produced hand sanitizer in 2020.
Distilleries across the country started making hand sanitizer at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic when supply was limited.
But that operation is now in question and those distilleries could be forced to pay a fee of more than $14,000.
in Thompsonville had to make a tough call with their production of hand sanitizer
That’s because distilleries were designated as “over-the-counter drug monograph facilities” in the CARES Act, allowing them to make and sell hand sanitizer, but that designation also came with a hefty fee.
“At of the end of the day today we will delist and we will not being doing that. Of course our focus has been on spirits but being able to make hand sanitizer for the community back in March, April, May and June was far more important to the community and to us,” said Iron Fish Family Owner, Richard Anderson.
What was a point of pride for local distillers has now become a point of frustration.
“Us included, many distilleries got a letter in the mail this week saying you owe $14,000 and due date is February,” said Landis Rabish, Master Distiller at .
“With the lockdowns, obviously that’s impacted our sales, our stock supply and here we’re coming into the slowest season of the year when normally we’re riding high knowing that sales won’t be big until June, so it’s kind of a low blow,” said Rabish.
Now distillers hope something can be done in the coming weeks about the unexpected fee.
“Just kind of shocked a lot of people, and a lot of us are still reeling trying to figure out does it have to happen, is there a loophole or something we can do, because it really is coming at the worst time,” said Rabish.
“We do have a local demand more nationally supply is normalized now, but it’s a way to provide a service to the local community and we’d be happy to continue doing that,” said Anderson.
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