Corona-virus….no pun intended

Grupo Modelo, the company that makes the popular Corona beer (Mexican), announced via Twitter on April 3 that they were suspending marketing and manufacture of their iconic brew, in keeping with the Mexican Government’s 30-day moratorium on all manufacture of non-essential products and foods. Mexico decided to close these factories and industries after the number of Coronavirus cases in Mexico hit 1,000. Currently, Mexico has 5,847 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 449 people having died due to the virus. It is anticipated that the moratorium will be extended beyond April 30th.

Amazingly, the coincidental identical name of their beer with the current lethal pandemic by the same name has barely affected sales so far – Corona beer sales grew 8.9% in the first three months of 2020, according to the press office of Grupo Modelo. Beer sales worldwide have increased 34% this year, as people hunker down and stay at home to comply with new quarantine requirements. Grupo Modelo is owned by Anheuser-Busch Inbev, who also own Pacific beers and the newest big hit product, Corona Hard Seltzer, not yet sold in Costa Rica.

Beer aficionados and producers are hoping that the Mexican Government will declare beer an essential product thereby making it exempt from the ban on production in Mexico. Grupo Modelo already has a plan of action in place in case this happens. Their press office stated, “At Grupo Modelo we are ready to execute a plan with more than 75% of our staff working from home, while at the same time guaranteeing the supply of beer.” Currently, they have scaled down all operations to a “bare minimum”, but still have two months of their beer in storage or in the pipeline.

The initial confusion among some consumers who mistakenly mistook Corona beer with Coronavirus seems to have abated. CBS News reported on March 1st that “38% of surveyed beer drinkers said they would not buy Corona beer under any circumstances”. Then they were forced to quarantine at home, and a good cold brew seemed much more appealing. Dutch brewer Heineken also announced it was suspending production of beer in Mexico temporarily.

The current hope of beer consumers is that Corona beer operations will be deemed agricultural, and therefore considered essential to the wellbeing of the country. Thousands of farmers were dealt a huge blow when beer operations were put on hold, and they too are hoping Mexico will change the ruling on beer production so their grain crops will not have to rot in the fields.
Interestingly, Mexico already had a plan in place for such a pandemic (unlike the United States and many other countries), based on International Health Regulations. Mexico became the first Latin American country to deploy a mathematical modeling of infectious disease, which showed the likely outcome of a pandemic and helped to inform public health interventions.
Corona beer is very likely to survive this public relations nightmare, and we will be able to consume the beer without limitations.

We hope there is never a coronavirus named Imperial – that would truly be a disaster!

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