Council Contributes to Mexican Breweries’ Reopening Amidst Pandemic Shutdown

Following the shutdown of Mexican businesses due to pandemic restrictions, the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) helped Mexican breweries’ reopen by organizing the U.S. barley grower associations response, allowing the trading relationship between U.S. barley producers and Mexican brewers to resume and recuperate U.S. barley exports, which in terms of only U.S. barley and malted barley during the 2019/2020 Marketing Year was valued at $189.2 million dollars.

According to the “State of the Brewers Industry Report,” produced by ACERMEX Mexico’s craft brewers association, beer production fell from 124 million hectoliters in 2019 to 118 million hectoliters in 2020. However, prior to this year’s atypical issues, there was growth in this industry from 4-8% year over year.

On March 31, 2020, Mexican breweries were shut down along with all other industries deemed “nonessential” in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in Mexico. This created chaos for the ingredient buyers in the brewing industry who were unable and unsure of how to honor their contracts. In mid-April, Constellation Brands in Mexico contacted the Council with an urgent request to help provide pressure from the U.S. side on the Mexican government to reopen the Mexican breweries.

The Council’s Mexico team was able to organize support from National Barley Growers Association and National Corn Growers Association to write a joint letter to President Lopez Obrador, signed by those groups, the Council and others, to reconsider Mexican brewing as an “essential” business given the number of jobs and income generated in the economy. On the individual state level, the Council organized letters from the governors of Idaho and Montana
and, working with partners, from members of the North Dakota Congressional delegation, the U.S. consulate in Monterrey, and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. On April 10, these efforts paid off, and the Mexican government reversed its decision and declared the industry essential.

In the United States alone, the beer industry generates more than $328 billion in economic activity, over 2.1 million jobs, and nearly $59 billion in tax revenue (NCGA, 2020).