Dairy and Business Owners Group chair Sunny Kaushal has labelled Labour's vaping crackdown as racist.
In an interview with AM on Tuesday, Kaushal claimed Labour's new policy wasn't evidence-based and was instead based on "panic".
"Who is the biggest loser going to be? It will be Smokefree 2025… Vaping is the biggest weapon we have to stop smoking in New Zealand."
Asked by AM host Ryan Bridge what percentage of dairies' revenue was from selling vapes, Kaushal said it wasn't "very big".
But the policy was "racist, victim-blaming", Kaushal claimed.
"They're not looking [at] what we are but they are targeting who we are," he said.
"If somebody is getting killed and hurt, it's the small businesses."
Kaushal's comments come after Labour on Tuesday announced it would crack down on youth vaping and limit the number of vape stores nationwide to 600 if re-elected.
Speaking to AM earlier, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said there were currently "about 1200 specialist vape stores and, of course, other retailers who are selling vapes as an incidental part of their business".
"I acknowledge that this will be a bit of a blow for some of those businesses but, actually, vapes have the potential to do harm," he told host Ryan Bridge. "I don't want young people taking up vaping, I don't want to see vape stores proliferating in the way that they have been - where they're popping up all over the place including directly opposite schools."
Hipkins said Labour's policy, which would include a licensing regime to sell vapes, was "one of the ways to help to prevent harm from vaping".
"Yes, there will be a reduction in the number of vape stores but the reality is when you reduce harmful activities, it does have a consequence. Harmful activities like vaping and cigarette smoking are areas where we want to see people doing less of it."
But Hipkins said Labour still wanted to ensure vaping was accessible to those trying to give up smoking.
Referring to Labour's new policy, he said its proposed licensing regime would be tightly enforced.
However, he said Labour didn't want to go as far as making vapes prescription-only like has happened in Australia.
