Mexico: Beer trade surplus falls by 118 mln tonnes last year

Although beer remained Mexico’s main agri-food export product last year, representing 22% of agribusiness exports, the trade surplus was reduced by 118 million dollars to 4.645 million dollars, the Explica reported on March 7.

Karla Siqueiros, director of Cerveceros de México, reminds of the impact of stopping completely the industry in April and May, when the Mexican government decreed a health emergency due to COVID-19 that suspended non-essential activities.

She also pointed out the “dry law” that certain states still maintain. “For an industry like us, who work 365 days a year, having been closed for 60 days was a strong impact on the numbers. And added to the fact that it was not considered an essential industry, we subsequently faced the challenges of the dry laws,” she said.

The numbers for the beer industry come in a context in which Mexico’s economy contracted 8.2% in 2020 and the pandemic has left almost 200,000 deaths and 2.1 million cases of COVID-19.

“The main challenge we have is to overcome the pandemic and then of course we will face a generally complex economic outlook,” said Manuel Cedillo, director of Economic Studies at Cerveceros de México.

Beer producers have also faced the closure of businesses such as bars and restaurants, which are their main points of sale.

Still, they were confident of reaching pre-pandemic levels this year.

“The challenge is for companies to start opening, for it to be an orderly opening, for it to be an opening that benefits the economic environment and to that extent the main challenge is to reach the previous levels that were had, as a beer industry, before pandemic,” Cedillo said.