In Mexico, the supply of beer is nearly depleted since so much of the beverage was panic-bought at the beginning of quarantine. Currently, the demands of a robust black market are yet to cease.

President of Cerverceros de México Karla Siquieiros said in an interview with el Universal that they were not producing a single beer.

Groupo Modelo, the managing company of popular beer brands like Corona, Pacifica, and Modelo, followed suspension orders after authorities regarded brewing as a non-essential activity.

La Ultima Chela

Corner store franchise Oxxo announced in late April that their beer would only last a little over a week, but this only led to shoppers buying mass amounts of beer.

Rather than demonstrations of anger and resentment, Mexicans were instead bewildered by the lack of supply. Empty fridges and stacks of bottles are posted on Twitter as the hashtags #LaUltimaChela, and #ConLasChelas trend online. Both roughly translate to "last beer" and "don't mess with my beer."

Director of the National Alliance of Small Merchants, Anpec, Cuauhtémoc Rivera, simply put, "Mexicans like to drink beer. [It's] a big money-maker for small stores."

Rivera added that families commonly run businesses that sell beer, and in the heat of the day, sales go up by 40 percent. Anpec advocated for beer brewing to be considered by the Mexican government as an essential activity with the conviction that the beverage would greatly help people cope with the lockdowns.

The organization had been pushing since last month the reopening of beer brewing companies. Municipalities and localities in Mexico have banned the sale of alcoholic beverages during the quarantines.

They argued that various states of anxiety, desperation, and even fears might turn into episodes of irritability and intolerance. Anpec added that "The consumption of beer at home operates as a relaxant, which helps endure a difficult trial."

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Non-Essential Goods

Last month, Grupo Modelo made an announcement declaring that the company would put a halt to brewing Corona beer. This is done in response to the federal government's orders to suspend 'non-essential' activities to mitigate the transmission of the coronavirus in the country.

A week before this, they already began to scale back production in anticipation of the suspension orders.

The company did, however, explain that should the Mexican government reconsider beer as an agro-industrial product, and, therefore, its production an essential activity, "We are ready to execute a plan with more than 75% of our staff working from home and at the same time guaranteeing the supply of beer."

The decision of the federal authorities to determine that brewing beer is not considered an activity as essential as the agricultural process, or food production will presumably shut down all of the plants that operated under Grupo Modelo in Mexico.

Grupo Modelo's beers are delivered and distributed to the United States through Constellation Brands. At the time, CEO Bill Newlands said that they had sufficient supply to meet the demand, which meant they would expect no shortages anytime soon.