In conjunction with the Bikla association and Haz Cerveza magazine, the Guadalajara-based craft brewery launched Rila beer last month to coincide with the BiciFest GDL on Avenida Chapultepec.
Priced around 90 pesos, Rila was designed, somewhat bizarrely, to honor cyclists. Minerva brewed 6,000 bottles, of 660 milliliters each, to be distributed in Guadalajara and Mexico City.
But the main focus this year is on international expansion. Minerva produces eight beers, although it exports just three brands: Colonial, Pale Ale and Tequila Imperial Ale.
Currently, just ten percent of the 30,000 cases of beer produced each month are sold abroad. Minerva recently shipped 160 cases to Canada and South Africa, the latest of eight countries where their malty beverages can be found.“This year we want to enter the United States market with much greater force,” said Juan Carlos Banda, the company’s commercial manager. Minerva hopes to export 25 percent of production in 2012, he added.
Ironically, it may be easier to penetrate foreign markets than it is back home in Mexico.
“More and more people are interested, for example restaurateurs who would like to have our beer, but it is still very difficult because many of them have signed long-term exclusive contracts with one of the two largest brewers,” said Banda, referring to beer giants Modelo and Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma, which have long enjoyed a duopoly over Mexican beer.
Last year, the Minerva and Primus microbreweries filed a suit before the Federal Competition Commission reporting Modelo and Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma for monopolistic practices. The case is under investigation and Banda hopes a favorable outcome will allow Minerva easier access to the domestic market.