Agronometrics in Charts: U.S. lime market seeing highest volumes and lowest prices in five years

This week we’re going to take a look at the U.S. lime market.

Despite the demand boost for citrus in general during the Covid-19 pandemic, so far in 2020 the world’s largest lime importer has experienced the lowest prices in five years.

Those low prices have come amid some of the largest volumes in years from Mexico. In the chart below you can see the big increase in supplies over recent months. In May they reached their peak with 72m kilograms, which is up 32% year-on-year.

Mexico supplied 97% of the limes to the U.S. market.

Meanwhile, prices have far lower than most previous years. In June 2020, the average price in the market was 27% lower than 2019 at US$0.48.

In the future, the Mexican citrus sector looks like it will be affected by drought, but it seems as though limes will be the least affected, as the trees are smaller and with better irrigation systems compared to other citrus crops.

Therefore only a 9% drop in production is expected in the coming season.

Written by: Cristian Crespo
Original published in FreshFruitPortal.com on July 14, 2020 (Link)