But with bars and off licences running dry, Polar said it had reached a deal for a $35 million loan from Spanish bank BBVA, putting up its shares in an investment fund as collateral.

The cash will enable the company to buy barley, hops and steel sheets for cans - enough to resume production next month and get through the rest of 2016, it said.

Some 10,000 workers at Polar's four breweries had been out of work since they suspended production.

The brewery is part of Venezuela's largest corporation, Empresas Polar, whose chief executive, Lorenzo Mendoza, has repeatedly clashed with Maduro as the economy has veered into a deep recession.

Maduro accuses the billionaire businessman of sabotaging the economy by slowing production, which the leftist leader blames for severe shortages of food and basic goods.