• ESSENTIAL: Mexico’s tequila production is ongoing despite a coronavirus health emergency that has suspended non essential activity across the country. While following gathering size restrictions, industry has continue operating given tequila has always been considered an agro-industrial product.
• RECORD: Last year, Mexico’s tequila production set annual record of 351 million liters in 2019 due to growing exports to the US and strong domestic demand. Before the health emergency this year, production remained robust with 53.9 million liters produced between January and February.
• HOME: “In the US market, people know that they cannot have a drink in a bar. Yet this has been offset by consumption at home. It is something that we hope will also happen in Mexico”, said Rodolfo González, head of Mexico’s tequila industry chamber (CNIT).
• BEER: In contrast to tequila, the Mexican brewing industry has halted all production saying that the government has not clarified if beer is considered an agro-industrial product. US imports of beer from Mexico were valued at US $4 billion in 2019, almost three times the value of tequila imports.
