HADLEY — Before 2,000 cases of V-One Vodka produced in a Kamień, Poland, factory can be unloaded from a cargo ship, set to arrive in Port Elizabeth, N.J., next week, company founder Paul Kozub will have to pay the U.S. government an $8,000 fee.

This new assessment imposed on the Hadley-based company, the result of 10% tariffs on all products originating in Europe, comes on top of the $25,000 to $28,000 federal liquor excise tax on each shipment of bottles of V-One Vodka that arrive in a 40-foot container, which also has to be paid before the product is trucked to a distribution facility in western Massachusetts.

On top of inflation and rising costs of doing business, the tariff is a fee that Kozub says he and other small business owners can’t afford.

“We already have a huge tax we have to pay when it clears customs,” Kozub said. “You’re already taxing this product, and now you are levying a 10% additional tax.

“This on-again, off-again tariff is a sizable hit on profit,” Kozub added. “So this tariff is just another unneeded expense at a time when everybody in this business is operating on thinner and thinner margins.”

V-One Vodka is about to mark 20 years, with Kozub founding the company in spring 2005 and selling the first bottle on Sept. 1 of that year. Over the years, Kozub has sought ways to make his product distinctive, including purchasing a state-of-the-art distillery in Kamień, Poland. That has given him full control over production and a capacity to scale up to 1 million cases of vodka annually. While growing, the company has six employees in western Massachusetts, with the world headquarters on Route 9 in Hadley town center, and 20 workers in Poland.

Kozub said he was caught off-guard when he learned about the tariff earlier in the week from the customs broker and the payment he would have to make to clear the container from the port, or else risk paying expensive storage fees. The shipment had left Europe in March, so there was a hope that the 10% tariff could be avoided, much as the higher 25% tariff rate was paused by the Trump administration for 90 days.

The shipments from the factory in Poland come about once per month, with more arriving later in the year, when more alcohol is sold during the last few months of the year for holiday celebrations.

Passing this cost on the consumer isn’t possible, after Kozub raised prices twice, most recently 18 months ago. That move led to a flattening of sales, and another increase would risk losing more market share if the price moves 80 cents an ounce to $1 an ounce.

“It feels like there is not room for me to go up anymore. There is a little less able to pass onto customers,” Kozub said.

Kozub has high end ingredients that are more expensive, but customers have appreciated the quality. “We’re doing very well throughout western Massachusetts and New England, getting into stores and getting onto menus,” Kozub said.

Tariffs are another in a line of challenges, losing half the business for several months during the COVID pandemic and then inflation hitting hard in Poland, especially due to the country’s proximity to the ongoing war in Ukraine. European Union rules related to green energy have driven up the production costs for glass bottles. Additionally, the cost of shipping, which had been $4,500 for each journey, has quadrupled, with no cheaper or practical alternatives than the ships.

Cultural shifts, such as the annual Dry January and a general decline in alcohol consumption among a younger generation, are also problems he is facing.

Kozub said that he has understood tariffs in other ways, such as when introducing the V-One Hazelnut Vodka, which uses Hadley produced maple syrup. Poland imposed tariffs at 100% for that import.

He has reached out to the White House and U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern’s office, appealing to see if there is any way to not pay the tariff or to recover the expense.

A lifelong political independent, Kozub said he recognizes the Trump administration’s stated goal is about returning manufacturing to the United States, but he compares the production of vodka in Poland, a country where the alcoholic spirit may have originated, as a necessity, similar to how the best champagne needs to be made in France and the top tequila in Mexico.

“I know this is affecting millions of small businesses across America,” Kozub said. “Tariffs are having a real impact on a small business like mine, and it needs to be figured out.”

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.