“The Agriculture Department’s role in this case, is clearly to encourage the industry to buy the crop, because farmers don’t have the capacity to store the grain,” the department said. Instead, the department said, it was only trying to encourage breweries to keep buying Mexican farmers’ barley crops. The very next day, the Agriculture Department issued a statement saying it had never meant to authorize re-opening the breweries. “There are general orders from health authorities suspending all work activities except the essential ones, which are clearly spelled out in the Health Council’s decree of March 31, and they do not include the production or distribution of beer.” “All I can say is that this was a mistake and it’s going to be corrected,” López-Gatell said of the letter. That drew a swift rebuke from the government’s coronavirus point man, assistant health secretary Hugo López-Gatell. “Beer supplies should be guaranteed, because beer helps people get through quarantine on better terms,” the National Alliance of Small Business said in a press statement Tuesday.Īfter Mexico ordered the closure of most “non-essential” industries in late March, including the country’s major breweries, the prospect of a looming shortage of brew turned into a heated disagreement within the government.įirst, on April 6, the Agriculture Department sent a letter to major breweries that could be read as inviting them to restart production.
MEXICO CITY – Perhaps one of the most heated debates in Mexico during the pandemic - after disagreements about personal protective equipment and testing - is the burning issue of whether beer should be considered an “essential” item during the lockdown.
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