Venezuelan beer industry faced with lack of supplies

[Bacchus4.0]

http://www.eluniversal.com/economia/150619/venezuelan-beer-industry-faced-with-lack-of-supplies

Venezuelan beer and malt beverages producers are going through their most critical moment in 170 years of history, alerted on Thursday the Executive Director of the Venezuelan Chamber of Beer Producers, Omaira Sayago.

The sectors' debt to foreign suppliers amounts to USD 217 million; hence, credit lines are exhausted. The situation is expected to worsen, as stocks will run out next August.

In Venezuela, eight industrial plants and 171 distribution centers are operative. As many as 112,000 employers, both direct and indirect, work in the sector, which produces on average 2 billion liters of beer per year.

The industry is currently working at record low levels of raw material and supplies, most of which are not produced in Venezuela, said Sayago.

[Divernan]

1. Well that bites for the divers and wind surfers in Bonaire.

Only 50 miles from Venezuela, the wondrous island of Bonaire has long relied on Venezuela for a regular supply of Polar beer. I recall being in a bar on the island and hearing the comment that they were running low on Polar, the island's favorite beer, but thank god there was a shipfull from Venezuela expected to dock that night.

Bonaire is an autonomous island-state within the kingdom of the Netherlands located 50 miles off the northern coast of South America. Bonaire, where the flamingos outnumber the humans (10,000 at high season) and can, depending on the amount of Venezuelan beer you've consumed, easily be confused for a sunset when they take flight. Bonaire is where the indigenous language, Papiamento, has no past or future tense, forcing you to remain forever in the present. Time is measured as day or night, not by the hours on a clock, and when the rain falls in heavy flooding curtains, it lasts all of seven minutes but puts the electricity out for days.

Here, the biggest hurry of the day is to make it to the beach or pier bar to argue over whether or not there was a "green flash" when the sun was swallowed by the infinite sea. (The "green flash" could, of course, come from staring at the blinding light of that sunset.) Despite boasting the second and third top diving spots in the world, this 170-square-mile island remains one of the few, rarely visited places left for globetrotters to find.

- See more at: http://www.nypress.com/bonaire-netherlands-antilles/#sthash.qA1VOWnw.dpuf