Local brewers and farmers market owners range from enthusiastic to disappointed to indifferent to the state’s new provision allowing brewers to sell beer and other craft beverages at farmers markets, fairs and other agricultural events.

With the farmers market season already underway in some areas, some businesses are taking advantage of the new opportunity — while others don’t see it as an opportunity at all.

“Everyone in the Massachusetts craft beer business is just excited to see the support we have for this,” said Chris Sellers, co-owner and head brewer of The Brewery at Four Star Farms in Northfield.

Sellers advocated for breweries to be able to sell beer at farmers markets, not just because of the sales he could make, but the relationships it could build.

“I’ve always worked for very small breweries over my 19 years in this business,” he said. “Farmers markets play that role in connecting local agriculture to a community and so, to be able to further connect at that level is such an important opportunity for breweries across the state.”

Lawrence George, owner of Brick & Feather Brewery, which formerly operated in Turners Falls, said his company will not take advantage of the new provision.

“For our business, it does not make sense to pay someone to work at a market for five or six hours only to sell a case or two of beer,” he told the Greenfield Recorder via email.

Daniel Greene, manager of the Ashfield and Shelburne Falls farmers markets, hadn’t heard of the new provision and said no brewers have approached him about vending this season.

“I wonder if the town would be excited about it. I don’t know,” he said.

The new opportunity is a part of the Mass Leads law Gov. Maura Healey signed last year. The act is a $4 billion plan that guides the state’s economic development activities and investments over the next several years and includes measures such as a $500 million investment into reauthorizing the state’s life sciences initiative and $400 million for climate tech programs.

The provision comes after several legislative sessions of advocacy from brewers, who were previously only able to offer samples to customers at farmers markets.

“We’re seeing more and more out-of-state beer on shelves and on draft lines, so that access to markets [is] shrinking, it’s smaller, it’s tougher,” said Massachusetts Brewers Guild Executive Director Katie Stinchon, who spent years educating legislators on the economic access needs of local brewers. She said restaurants are ordering from breweries less and out-of-state vendors have increased competition.

“Your local farmers market is an incredible space to get awareness out that you have a local brewery in your neighborhood and a way to get your product directly to the consumer as well,” she said.

But Element Brewing Co. co-owner Dan Kramer feels that the effort to get a measure like this was a waste of political advocacy. He said small breweries like his in Millers Falls would have to foot a bill on top of existing costs related to manufacturing, packaging, energy, labor, utilities and rent.

“You have to get a license from the town and there’s a fee associated with that. Then you have to get a space in the farmers market and there’s a fee associated with that. Then you have to pay somebody to be in the farmers market and sell the product,” Kramer said. “I just don’t see it as a big economic win.”

The process for a brewer to sell beer at a farmers market is the same for a winery, cidery or meadery. First, a brewer must apply to the farmers market and be accepted as a vendor. Following that, the brewer must then complete an application through the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources to certify that the event they want to vend at is an agricultural one. If MDAR approves the application, the brewer must go to their local licensing board to apply for a license allowing the sale of craft beverages.

At least 12 breweries and five distilleries have submitted certification applications this season, according to MDAR. Mackenzie May, program lead of MDAR’s Agricultural Event Certification Program, said the state does not charge fees for the applications, but local licensing boards may.

“We always encourage folks to get their applications in early, as soon as they know they’ve been accepted by market managers or event staff to vend at these events,” May said. “There’s no harm in submitting an application to us to get the event certified. … Then they’ll need to take it to their local licensing authority and that may take more time.”

Grow Food Northampton’s farmers market will welcome Abandoned Building Brewery in Easthampton as a vendor starting April 29. Market manager Helen Khan said it’s a chance for customers to tap into a local business that’s new to them.

“We’re very happy to have any new local vendors at our market,” she said. “It’s positive that way. I can’t predict if it’ll have a big impact on the market.”

Khan noted that cider vendors have done well at the market in the past, though it’s not something market attendees have clamored for. Still, she thinks the opportunity could offer some exposure to the market’s strong clientele.

“I hope that Abandoned Building Brewery benefits from being introduced to new customers,” she said.

Chinanu Okoli writes for the Greenfield Recorder through the Boston University Statehouse Program.