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Shoppers will soon be able to purchase craft beer and craft spirits at farmers markets, along with the already offered wine and hard cider, as part of a provision in the $4 billion economic development bill recently approved by the Legislature.

Gov. Maura Healey signed the bill Wednesday.

Beer makers with the Massachusetts Brewers Guild had spent years pushing for the measure.

“This is a huge win for brewers throughout the commonwealth,” said Adam Romanow, founder and CEO of Castle Island Brewing and president of the Brewers Guild. The organization represents about 200 operating breweries across the state.

The provision in the economic development bill contains language that would allow brewers with the appropriate state and local licensing to begin sales immediately. It would also allow brewers and wineries to provide up to five free samples to individual prospective customers. Distillers can provide up to four free samples.

It is intended to allow local brewers to sell within their local communities. Part of the motivation, Romanow said, is the fact that other forms of alcohol have been permitted for sale at farmers markets.

“We think it’s just a matter of common sense legislation that as long as wineries can do it, breweries should be able to do it as well,” he said.

Others argued that creating an additional place for alcohol transactions could cause problems for independent stores that rely on alcohol sales.

“Retail providers and wholesalers across the state are very much in opposition to distillers and brewers being allowed to engage in vertical integration,” said Robert Mellion, executive director of the Massachusetts Package Stores Association, in a statement to GBH News.

The group, which represents about 700 beer, wine and spirits retailers in Massachusetts, has asked Healey to veto the provision. In the letter to the governor, Mellion explains that alcohol retail sales have been “alarmingly bad” given other recent changes like local bans on small bottle sales and the expansion of pandemic-era drinks to-go, which allows consumers to get cocktails from restaurants.

“The last thing Massachusetts needs is for manufacturers of alcohol beverage products to be legislatively awarded a monopoly,” Mellion wrote in the veto request letter.

Dan Cence, CEO of the Issues Management Group lobbying firm, said package store owners’ concern is understandable.

“In business, you want to control as much of the point of purchase for your products as you possibly can, but I think what really won the day for us with legislators was just a matter of fairness,” he told GBH News, adding that craft brewers employ many people across the state.

“Really, the ability to buy Massachusetts craft beer from Massachusetts companies at Massachusetts farmers markets made all the sense in the world.”