For the fourth year running, Mexico was the world’s leading exporter of beer in 2013, with beer exports reaching a record $2.2 billion, a rise of 4.2 percent compared to 2012, and well ahead of both the Netherlands at $2.0 billion and Belgium at $1.6 billion.

Mexico has become the leading supplier of beer to the US and now accounts for almost 50 percent of that country’s beer imports. It is also the leading supplier to Australia, Chile, Guatemala, Argentina, and New Zealand, as well as the third leading supplier to Canada and the fourth largest to China and Japan.

The two major beer producers in Mexico are Grupo Modelo - brewers of Corona, Pacifico, Modelo, and Victoria - and Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma - brewers of Dos Equis, Tecate, Carta Blanca, Sol, Bohemia, and Indio.

The leading export brand is Corona which reaches 180 countries around the world. Over the past decade, Mexico’s beer industry has grown at 2.5 percent a year and analysts expect this rate to quicken, predicting output will rise from 1,875,621,572 gallons this year to 2,166,210,829 gallons in 2020.

In the US, quite a few Mexican beers were consumed on Thanksgiving Day.