Beer shortage in Covid-19 times: Mexico is thirsty

Audio 02:33

By: Alix Hardy Follow

The suspension of all non-essential activities since April affects the beer sector, in a country that is both a major consumer and the world's largest exporter.

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These are the big ones missing at the moment. In the fridge of this grocery store in Roma, a district in the center of the capital Mexico, the department is still labeled "Cerveza" ("beer"), but nature abhors a vacuum, the shelves are now filled with sodas and other bottles of coke struggling to change things.

Just a month ago, you could buy a liter of iced beer for just over a euro in this same store. But for the past few weeks, the situation has been the same everywhere: the grocery chains open 24 hours a day, which have colonized every street corner in Mexico,

are dry. "  Even during the earthquake (7.1 on the Richter scale, which shook the capital in September 2017), we had not seen that,  " said the cashier.

An activity deemed "  non-essential  "

Since early April, the factories of the country's largest producers, Grupo Modelo (owned by Belgian giant Anheuser-Busch InBev), which makes the famous Corona, and Cuauhtémoc-Moctezuma (owned by Heineken Mexico), have been shut down. In late March, the government declared a state of "  health emergency due to force majeure  " in the face of the arrival of the coronavirus in the country, suspending "  all non-essential activities  ". A list which has been the subject of negotiations step by step in each sector, and from which the beer industry has not managed to extract itself, unlike the wine sector and strong alcohols like tequila which continue their operations.

A month and a half later, Mexico is thirsty. Existing stocks of beer have melted like snow in the sun in a country that cannot do without it: Mexicans consume 72 liters per person each year, more than three times the French average. Sipped with a mezcal, chopped with lemon in an iced glass on the terrace or served in one-liter cups mixed with a whole arsenal of dripping sauces in the Sunday markets, beer is part of the daily life of Mexicans. Fearing that confinement and alcohol would form an explosive cocktail, several districts of Mexico City and the states of the country have also introduced the "ley seca", which prohibits the consumption of alcohol, generally from Friday to Sunday.

25% of Mexico's agri-food exports

Beyond the national predilection, the Mexican industry is the first exporter of beer in the world, serving mainly the United States, China and the United Kingdom. A market that represents 25% of Mexico's agri-food exports, recalls the Chamber of Mexican Brewers. “  Paralyze a sector of little importance, why not, but we are talking about a major producer !  Chokes Cuauhtémoc Rivera, president of the Alliance of Small Traders (ANPEC), which represents 85,000 shops out of the 1.2 million in the country.

Because the Mexican beer industry depends on 650,000 jobs, direct and indirect. If the impact on exports will be "  extremely strong  ", has confined itself to indicating Heineken, that on neighborhood tenants is already being felt, indicates Rivera: "  Beer is one of their main products of appeal. It triggers 40% more revenue.  "

A home beer delivery service

A few blocks from the grocery store, a few cans of Victoria lager beer lie in the back of the fridge in an independent stall. "  These are the last,  " warns the seller. It will cost 60 pesos each (2.5 euros) to anyone who wants to take it, twice the usual price. Because according to the law of supply and demand, the last bottles see their prices soar, and alternative solutions are multiplying. "  We have simply passed the beers from legal fridges to those on the black market, in the hands of speculators,  " laments Cuauhtémoc Rivera, of ANPEC.

Facebook pages and ads on retail websites have flourished: for those who have preemptively stored a few cases of the precious drink, it's time or never to make themselves known. The five partners of Chela-Express, a home beer delivery service born just two weeks ago in the capital, had the idea in extremis . Seeing the supermarkets dry up, Julio Castañeda, who regularly visits the Central de Abastos - the Mexican Rungis - had the idea at the beginning of May to buy beer cartons to sell them there.

“  Exponential sales  ” of craft beer

First to friends, then to the general public through a website set up in a few hours. “  On Thursday morning, I buy a stock of beers. The next day, I go back with a van to increase the reserves and they had increased by 100 pesos. We ended up buying him all that was left !  "Another supplier was raising prices for each customer in the queue. Since then, they sell their stock at prices that compete with craft beers. "  It remains cheaper than some wholesalers: grocery stores in the city get their supplies from us to resell the inhabitants,  " said the entrepreneur.

A shortage that could well save microbrewers, these producers of craft beer intended for affluent urban dwellers. Too expensive, too marked in taste and unknown to the general public, they risked bankruptcy but saw their sales rise as the shortage. In the state of Chihuahua and despite its border with the United States (where many cross-border workers will now buy their supplies), the local association of craft brewers speaks of "  exponential sales  ". In Mexico City, the Colima brewery has sold its stock intended for private restaurants. "  Smaller breweries, sometimes located at the producer's home, who were able to continue their production under the radars despite the suspension of activities,  " slips an actor in the sector.

"  The Best  ", a new beer in stores

The lobby of industrial brewers said it would be "  ready to resume its activities as soon as possible  " but that "  health comes first  ." The beer shortage in the country confirms that the sector has respected the suspension ... with the exception of the Constellation Brands brewery, which claims to have received the agreement of the authorities to run its two factories in the north of the country at a reduced rate in order to to export Modelo and Corona to the United States, without the nationals seeing the color. A return to normal was hoped for in mid-May, but it was quickly pushed back to June by health authorities seeking to guide the country towards gradual deconfinement as the numbers of new cases of coronavirus continue to increase, indicating that the peak of the epidemic has not yet been reached.

In recent days, however, white smoke has been coming out of the Modelo factory in the heart of Mexico City again, accompanied by a characteristic smell of fermented hops. The group's spokesperson spoke of "  maintenance activities  "; but some media did not fail to note the appearance in grocery stores in the capital of a new black can of the Victoria brand of beer branded "The Best: United for Mexico". A “  hop-based drink with 1.8% alcohol, part of the profits of which will be donated to the most vulnerable  ”, announces the packaging. A clever way to circumvent the law, which considers that drinks are alcoholic from 2%, while non-alcoholic drinks remain an "  essential activity  " in times of pandemic.

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