Grupo Modelo, a Mexican beverages company that is a division of Belgium's Anheuser-Busch InBev, and Millfoods, a Mexican food and beverage manufacturing company, have announced that they will team up to open a $300m corn processor to include local and natural ingredients in beer production.

Grupo Modelo states that the project demonstrates its "commitment to the Mexican countryside, [as] the project will benefit 20,000 corn producers in the Bajío and Altiplano regions".

Upon announcing the deal, Raúl Escalante, vice-president of legal and corporate affairs at Grupo Modelo, said: “We have an unbreakable commitment to Mexico. With this investment, we reaffirm our purpose of supporting Mexican producers who grow the grains with which we make our beers to continue promoting the growth of the country's agribusiness."

Meanwhile, Pilar Gutiérrez, president of Millfoods, added: “At Millfoods we are excited to be the operating investor of this project. We are committed to positioning our processes as benchmarks in the industry, working towards neutral carbon production, and minimising the use of water resources in our operations.”