The owners of a small Canadian brewery on Campobello Island say they have no choice but to relocate to Lubec amid the escalating tariff war between the United States and Canada.
The business decision — which could land Maine’s easternmost town a new year-round brewery shortly after the popular Lubec Brewing Company closed in mid-August — comes as the countries have been entangled in a tariff dispute since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025. In mid-August, the United States imposed a 50% tax on $20 billion worth of Canadian products.
The country’s northern and historically friendly neighbor retaliated in late August with tariffs on about $20 billion worth of American goods, which are expected to take effect Sept. 8. The impending Canadian tax — targeting steel, dairy products, appliances and farm equipment — represents a dollar-for-dollar match on the Trump administration’s tariffs.
Given the latest developments, Zoltan and Laura Fox, the owners of Mother Mushroom Brewery & Farmstay, have decided they can no longer operate out of their oceanfront lot on Campobello Island, a small Canadian island in southwestern New Brunswick that is connected to Lubec by bridge. There is no bridge to mainland Canada from the island.
“Where we differ from other businesses on the island is that we heavily rely on the United States for customers to bring our product back to the US,” Zoltan Fox said. “The majority of our customers are in the US, and until now, our only impacts to our operation have been at the Canadian border.”
The couple rely exclusively on American materials as they’re too far remote to access Canadian supply chains, Zoltan Fox said.
“It’s a little bit of a joke between us but we’re the most American brewery in Canada,” Laura Fox said. “Not because we are purposefully trying to avoid purchasing Canadian — we just can’t. This is a very very strange geographic location within Canada.”
Major shipping companies like FedEx and UPS don’t deliver to their island, she said, noting the logistics of a Canadian supply chain are impractical on Campobello.
“Many Maine companies depend on Canadian customers, suppliers, distributors, and processing networks,” Wade Merritt, president of the Maine International Trade Center, told the Bangor Daily News in a statement Wednesday. “When trade barriers increase in either direction, the result is often higher costs, disrupted supply chains, delayed purchasing decisions, and reduced competitiveness for businesses on both sides of the border.”
Since opening in June 2025, the couple has already had to weather mounting tariffs between the US and Canada. They’ve spent more than $9,000 in taxes and fees at the border since then, Zoltan Fox said, noting they source all their malt, grain, aluminum cans and other materials from Maine.
“This is just the next level,” Laura Fox said. “We thought the storm we were weathering was the storm. But that was just a little gust before the actual hurricane hit.”
The majority of the brewery’s patrons, Americans, will now face a 50% tax on all beer they bring home. A $20 four-pack will cost customers an additional $10 if they’re crossing the border back to Lubec, Zoltan Fox said, adding that those estimates don’t account for the cost increase per can needed to offset the latest tariffs.
With the latest economic pressures, the couple have decided to move to Lubec, though they haven’t yet decided on where to set up shop.
The Foxes would like to take over the former Lubec Brewing Company, which shut down in mid-August after its owners retired due to health issues. As Lubec’s only year-round watering hole, its closure has left an opening for a new community space, which the Foxes would like to fill.
The Lubec brewery has been an “anchor point in the community” and an essential space where people can “gather and have a pint, especially locals in the wintertime when everything else is closed,” Laura Fox said.
“Maine and Canada share much more than a border,” Merritt said. “We are family, as well as business colleagues and innovation partners. Throughout our history, mutually beneficial relationships have developed on both sides of the border. To protect our shared regional prosperity, stability in trade policy at the national level is vital.”
The Lubec brewery is selling for nearly $700,000, which the Foxes say they can’t afford. The couple has set up a GoFundMe page to help finance the move, which they hope will be made possible by crowdfunding and bank loans.
“This is something our community needs: Campobello and Lubec have been historical sister communities, they’ve been functionally one community for hundreds of years,” Laura Fox said. “It is only the slowly increasing border restrictions over the past decades, and now financial border restrictions, that is cutting these communities off and making it a place that’s more difficult to run a business, live and even do something as simple as gather and listen to someone play fiddles.”