You mentioned tobacco. Research and development can support in some ways. For example, some of the tobacco kilns in those regions are now being turned into drying kilns for grapes in order to produce wines in the appassimento style. There are opportunities there for new products, and that's extremely important in new wine-producing regions.
As well, for example, excise tax support of international Canadian blends: these are wines that are blended from domestic and international wines. In some of the areas, the grapes that can be grown would be more conducive towards going into the international Canadian blended wines. There are opportunities there for growth, so research into new grape varietals in cool climate centres would be helpful as well. But I mentioned in my presentation that the tax dilemma we have with international Canadian blended wines is that we don't pay excise tax on 100% Canadian wines, but we do pay excise tax on wines that are not made from 100% Canadian content products.
Twenty-five per cent of wine sales in Canada are international Canadian blends, which can have as much as 40% and 50% Canadian content in those blends, but they don't get the same benefit as 100% Canadian wines even though they're using the same grapes that are grown in Canada. There are opportunities there for growth. If we are able to find a way to exempt the Canadian content from tax, in those wines we'd be able to make greater investments in new regions, in new technologies, and in growing the 100% Canadian side of the market as well.
There are some areas that can be helpful.