Empresas Polar, a firm with an 80% share in the Venezuelan beer market, plans to stop brewing beer due to a shortage of raw materials.

Polar has been urging the country’s President Nicolas Maduro to give companies access to the foreign currency required to pay overseas raw material suppliers for some time.

Venezuela’s currency exchange system is rigid, as only the government has control over foreign currency; however, firms need the money to pay for the imported raw materials from overseas markets.

“We are obligated to suspend the production of beer and malts until we get access to the currency needed to procure the raw materials.”

Polar was cited by The Wall Street Journal as stating: "Our current situation is this; we have not been able to replenish the inventory, and we only have malted barley to produce until April 29.

"Under those circumstances, we are obligated to suspend the production of beer and malts until we get access to the currency needed to procure the raw materials."

The government has accused the brewer of waging an economic war. Maduro’s Government is currently struggling to bring the collapsing economy on track.

Polar said: "We want to maintain our plants operational and at maximum capacity, generating thousands of jobs in all corners of the country."

Several other businesses are experiencing the currency problem, from auto manufacturers to pork producers, firms have not been able to secure enough money from the government to keep their operations running.

Last year, the country’s economy shrank to 5.7% in 2015, and according to the International Monetary Fund, it will drop by another 8% in 2016.

Presently, the nation’s foreign reserves have dipped to under $13bn, one-third of what it was seven years earlier.