“Economy Ministry Hands Out the Mexican Innovation Prize to 24 Projects at InnovaFest Querétaro”
Infobae reports:
“Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard led the presentation of the National Innovation Prize on August 23 at InnovaFest Querétaro, where 3.2 million pesos were handed out in prize money, along with scholarships and in-kind incentives for Mexican inventors and entrepreneurs.
“The list of strategic partners backing this edition included companies such as Cemex, Danone, General Motors, Grupo Modelo, Liverpool, Nestlé, Scotiabank, Spotify and Telmex, among more than 30 private sector organizations.”
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Assessment
InnovaFest is a flagship programme of the federal Economy Ministry – over 150 awards worth close to 20 million pesos across five cities in 2026, financed with public and private money.
Grupo Modelo, the AB InBev subsidiary that dominates Mexican beer production, sits among its strategic partners, which places the beer giant’s name beside the Economy Secretary and state governors at every stop of a government programme. Movendi International has documented what this kind of proximity delivers: Big Beer’s investment pledges bought influence in Mexico, giving the industry standing with the government that outlasts any individual announcement.
Congress takes up the 2027 fiscal package in September, with alcohol taxation on the agenda after being left out of the 2026 budget and the spirits industry lobby pushing an IEPS redesign that would make its products cheaper.
A beer producer whose parent corporation faces those decisions is meanwhile financing a federal ministry’s flagship programme and sharing its stage, weeks before the tax debate opens.
Mexico has become a case study of how the alcohol industry operates to avoid people-centred alcohol tax increases.