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New brewery will ship Yucatecan beer to Africa

The Grupo Modelo brewery in Yucatán is on track to be one of the largest in the country. Photo: Google

Hunucmá, Yucatán — The new, high-tech Grupo Modelo brewery will be officially inaugurated in about two weeks. The ceremony will include President Enrique Peña Nieto and Gov. Rolando Zapata Bello.

The project not only brings hundreds of jobs to the region, it also welcomes two of Yucatán’s beer brands back to home turf.

Not that all the beer will stay at home. Forty percent of the beer the plant produces will head to the Port of Progreso for export as far away as Africa. Shipments will also head to markets across North and South America and the Caribbean.

Cervecería Yucateca in Mérida, creator of the home-grown Montejo and León trademarks, was acquired by the beer giant Modelo in 1979. The company moved its operations from Yucatán to Oaxaca in 2002. 

According to Grupo Modelo, Yucatán represents 10 percent of Mexico’s consumer market. The plant will increase Modelo’s assets by 10 percent and the state government will benefit from tax revenue from the acquisition of land for the complex, located fewer than 15 kilometers from Mérida.

Ground broke for the 8.5 billion-peso complex in January last year. Even before the plant was finished, Grupo Modelo expanded it, increasing capacity by 40 percent while it was still under construction. 

If production goals are met, the Yucatecan plant becomes Mexico’s third largest brewery. Modelo owns the country’s largest plant, which is in Zacatecas, as well as the second-largest, in Oaxaca.

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