InBev discontinued beer production in Belgium

The world's biggest beer manufacturer, company InBev, has discontinued production in its mother country Belgium after the escalation of workers' dissatisfaction occasioned by lay-offs.

Discontinuation of production led to shortage of beer in stores.

The workers blocked three InBev's factories two weeks ago and protested because of the dismissal of 263 colleagues of theirs, which was part of the plan for reduction of European part of the company by 10%.

As the trade unions and the administration announced the beginning of the third round of negotiations, the stores all around Belgium started reporting about drastic reduction of stocks of three basic products of InBev - beers Stella Artois, Beck`s and Leffe.

InBev's spokesperson Karen Coeck said that the walls of beer crates had been built in three main factories on January 7th, when the protest had begun, which made the delivery of raw materials, empty bottles and packaging materials impossible.

The trade unions say that InBev registers high profits worldwide.

InBev registered 1.55 billion USD worth of net profit for the previous quarter in November 2009.