Farm Credit East Winery Benchmarks Program Accepting New Participants

ENFIELD, CONN. — Farm Credit East is now accepting new participants to its Winery Benchmarks program, a valuable financial benchmarking program for winery and cidery businesses. The deadline to sign up is April 1, 2026.

The Winery Benchmarks program provides opportunity for participants to compare financial and operational data to industry standards and other successful producers in the program. Farm Credit East consultants then work with each business to evaluate and offer personalized insights to improve financial growth. Data collection includes insights from financials, inventory, labor and sales.

“In an increasingly competitive marketplace, identifying and understanding important financial and sales metrics will continue to be key to profitability for current and future winery and cidery businesses,” said Emili Ponte, Farm Credit East Business Consultant and Co-Director of the Winery Benchmarks Program. “The Winery Benchmarks program is a unique tool for producers as it combines Northeast sales and profit data analysis, while bringing together leaders in the industry to network and collaborate about successes and opportunities for long-term sustainability in the winery and cidery industry.”

Benchmark participation includes a financial report, which provides a trend analysis to evaluate change within their business as well as northeast and peer comparisons to evaluate various financial, sales and efficiency metrics that quantify winery financial success and sustainability.

Participants are invited to a collaborative meeting to network with other winery and cidery owners to create a better understanding of the industry and brainstorm opportunities for regional and individual business improvement. Finally, all participants will have a one-on-one meeting with an experienced Farm Credit East consultant to review the data in detail, perform a business SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis and put practical business solutions to work immediately.

To learn more or to sign up, visit FarmCreditEast.com/WineryBenchmarks. Contact Emili Ponte at Emili.Ponte@FarmCreditEast.com or call (607) 269-4663 for more information.

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