Mexico continues to be the world’s leading exporter of beer

For the fifth year in a row, Mexico was the world’s leading exporter of beer in 2014. The final tally shows that Mexico exported 1,700 million liters of beer in 2014, worth 1.6 billion dollars. (Export figures for 2015 are not yet available but will show that Mexico remains well in the lead over Belgium and the Netherlands)

Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma brewery in Monterrey. Photo: Tony Burton.

Mexico is the world’s sixth largest producer of beer and is predicted to leapfrog Germany and Russia this year (2016) into fourth place, behind only China, the U.S. and Brazil. Significant investments during 2015 have raised national production capacity 39% to 125 million hectoliters.

The two largest beer producers are Grupo Modelo and Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma (formerly Femsa). Grupo Modelo is building a new 310-milion-dollar brewery in the state of Yucatán and also expanding its breweries in Zacatecas and Coahuila. Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma is building a new 450-million-dollar facility in Chihuahua. A third brewer, Constellation Brands, is undertaking a 500-million-dollar expansion to its Piedras Negras plant in Coahuila, which will triple its annual production to 30 million hectoliters by 2017.

Related Posts:

• Mexico’s beer industry loses its national identity (Aug 2012)
• The emergence of two major beer-makers in Mexico (Sep 2010)
• The geography of Mexico’s beer industry (Jan 2015)
• Nava brewery in Coahuila: the largest brewery of its kind in the world (Mar 2105)