Wednesday, March 26, 2014

High Prices Squeezing Limes

Missing that lime in your beer or margarita when you go to the bar lately? Prices of limes has risen sharply in the United States and Mexico. That’s making products made with limes more expensive.


limes



About 98 percent of limes consumed in the U.S. come from Mexico. But our neighbors to the south are feeling seriously squeezed by a shortage of the beloved citrus fruit.


At a Mexico City outdoor market, vendor Alberto Reyes Stanislao tries to entice passersby to buy his limes with sweet talk and coaxing. But with limes going for 50 pesos a kilo — about $1.75 a pound, or three times the normal price — his sales have plummeted 50 percent. And he says he’s getting an earful from customers.


“They say I’m selling green gold. One customer told me that instead of eating the limes, she was going to wear them as a necklace,” says Reyes.



In the U.S., grocery stores are now charging an average of 53 cents for a single lime, compared to 21 cents per fruit at this time last year, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.


A combination of factors has affected Mexican production. Heavy rains late last year in the states of Michoacan, Guerrero and Veracruz hurt the crop. And in Colima, a big lime-producing state, a bacterium is infecting trees.


Source


Photo Credit: Dario Lopez-Mills/AP


Video Credit: USA Today



High Prices Squeezing Limes

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