Mexican limes

Despite the heavy rains that struck the state of Veracruz in September and October 2010, on the whole Mexico's year-round lime deal should not see a shortage in the pipelines that supply the US market

'Last year, the Veracruz area was slammed with a flurry of hurricanes and storms which affected the tree’s fruit production and caused an extremely high market,' says Hugo Vargas, junior buyer for Earth Source Trading, based in Ephrata, Pennsylvania.

'This year, there were storms that hit Veracruz, but not as hard as last year, and speaking with different vendors and (Mexican) growers it looks like lime production will be lighter than normal this winter, but not a total disaster like last year,” Mr Vargas says.

The US economy has played an influential role on this season's low market demand, according to Mr Vargas.

'Demand for limes this season has been lower than in previous years,' he says. 'Vendors down in the valley (the southern Texas, McAllen area) are saying movement has been very slow this year compared to 2009. As a result, this year's market price has trended below historical averages.The US economy seems to be greatly affecting consumer demand for limes in general and we expect this to continue into 2011.'

See the December/January issue of Americafruit Magazine for the full report

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