A drop in shipments from Mexico is helping to regulate the supply of Persian limes on the European market and keeping prices buoyant.
Andreas Schindler, CEO of Don Limón, said the company is importing air-flown limes from Mexico to meet the high demand.
“In the last four years the European market has tended to crash in the September to November period and it could be that this had led to fewer loadings this year,” he told Fruitnet.
Schindler noted that the lower volumes coming out of Mexico could also be down to producers being forced to implement stricter quality standards in order to comply with US food safety requirements.
“We can observe that the business has become more professional in the past year, especially companies shipping to the US. Not everyone can pack and export limes any more, the business has become more formal and maybe this is preventing oversupply,” he said.
The European market has been strong throughout 2017 and the supply gluts and ensuing price crashes of recent seasons have been absent this year.
