Mexican health authority reaffirms veto to produce beer due to pandemic



The Mexican health authorities contradicted this Friday the Ministry of Agriculture and reaffirmed the veto on beer production during the COVID-19 health contingency, a disease that has caused more than 200 deaths and almost 4,000 confirmed patients in the country.

"The beer industry does not have authorization to reestablish operations. It is a mistake and it is going to be amended," the undersecretary of Prevention and Promotion of Health, Hugo López-Gatell, said forcefully at a press conference.

The senior official was asked about it after the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Sedar) suggested to brewers the possibility of resuming production so as not to affect the thousands of workers who grow barley.

López-Gatell stressed that "there is a general provision of the health authority that has established with all precision that work activities are temporarily suspended, except essential activities", which does not include the marketing of beer.

The undersecretary of Health said that the secretary (minister) of Agriculture, Víctor Villalobos, "has already taken action on the matter" to resolve this issue "as soon as possible."

The director general of Agriculture Development, Santiago José Argüello, this week raised with representatives of the beer industry the possibility of resuming production under strict sanitary measures to "guarantee the economic flow in rural areas during the contingency".

The Department of Agriculture is concerned about the fact that the health crisis coincides with the barley harvesting season, a sector that generates 55,000 direct jobs.

The National Association of Small Merchants (ANPEC) came to applaud this Friday what it considered to be an "authorization granted by the Ministry of Agriculture for the reactivation of beer production and distribution."

However, López-Gatell reaffirmed that the General Health Council will not change the beer marketing ban one iota.

Both Grupo Modelo and Heineken closed production and distribution at the plants they have in Mexico on April 5, since the government's emergency sanitary decree does not consider the production of alcoholic beverages as an essential economic activity.

The lack of beer in establishments and even rumors in some Mexican states about the possible application of the dry law unleashed "panic purchases" in some places in Mexico, a country where beer is enormously popular.

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