Venezuela could run out of beer by next month

Venezuela could stop making beer by August, as local breweries run out of ingredients needed to produce the country’s most popular alcoholic drink.

A brewery shutdown would reduce the country’s beer supply by a terrifying 80 percent, according to industry leaders.

Local breweries say they are down to their final batches of barley, malt and other imported products needed to make beer, thanks to Venezuela’s strict currency controls that have made it almost impossible to purchase supplies. The industry, which is calling the situation an “unprecedented crisis,” is already some $200 million in arrears to suppliers around the world.

“Beer shortages will essentially force our sector to go broke; beer accounts for 70 percent of our sales,” Fray Roa, a spokesman for Venezuela’s National Association of Liquor Store Owners, said in a press conference.

Strict currency controls force Venezuelan companies to buy U.S. dollars from the government when they want to import goods or do business abroad. Falling oil prices have made U.S. dollars extremely scarce and the government has failed to supply companies with the right amount of dollars needed to import dozens of basic goods. Toilet paper, shampoo, chicken and beef, have been hard to find in Venezuelan supermarkets for months.


more on fusion.net