Hard times hit Margaritaville: Prices for limes double after Mexico storms

  • Slug: BC-CNS-Pricey Limes,385
  • Sidebar: About those pricey limes.
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By HARMONY HUSKINSON
Cronkite News Service

SCOTTSDALE – At the Mission, a Mexican food restaurant in Old Town, the salty rims of margaritas are missing something these days: limes.

The fruit has become so pricey that bar manager Michael Bunker has stopped using them as a garnish.

“As far as I know, this is the worst situation it’s been in 50 years,” Bunker said.

The lime, a staple in many of Arizona’s Mexican eateries and grocery stores, has doubled in price over the last two months after heavy fall storms in Mexico knocked blooms from trees.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, grocery stores were selling limes at an average of 53 cents each last week, up from 21 cents each in the same week last year.

As for 40-pound cases sold to Bunker’s restaurant, prices have jumped from $30 to $90, he said.

“It’s been tough. We’ve reduced a lot of our usage of it,” Bunker said.

John Caldwell, general manager for the Arizona division of Vision Produce, the No.1 importer of limes in Arizona, said he’s never seen anything like it.

“We’re experiencing an unprecedented time in lime supply over the last 50 years,” Caldwell said.

Colin Fain, the CEO of Agronometrics, a startup that analyzes agricultural data, said the spread of citrus greening disease in Mexico is contributing to the high lime prices. The disease, spread by a fly-like insect called the Asian citrus psyllid, causes misshapen fruit that doesn’t ripen properly.

“Unfortunately there’s not a whole lot that can be done. I mean, most of this is due to the weather or other factors that are beyond human control,” he said.

Mark Damato, senior vice president of retail sales at Peddler’s Son Produce, a Phoenix wholesaler, said that while prices are high, that doesn’t mean people have stopped buying limes or using them to cook.

“A restaurant has to have if they have a bar. Grocery chains don’t want to be without them,” he said. “It’s pretty much a staple item.”

Back at the Mission, tacos have also taken a hit. Rather than serving two lime slices with every taco, now it only serves one.

“We’ve rationed out what we can,” Bunker said.

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Those pricey limes:

• 98 percent of limes imported to the U.S. come from Mexico.

• Most of Mexico’s lime production is in the country’s warmer, wetter southern reaches.

• Experts say strong fall storms hit at the time Mexico’s lime trees were blossoming, hurting production.

• 2 percent of lime imports pass through Nogales, Ariz. The rest enter through McAllen, Texas.

• Vision Produce, the No.1 importer of limes in Arizona, imports about 65 million pounds of limes annually.

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At the Mission, a Mexican food restaurant in Old Town, bar manager Michael Bunker has stopped using limes as garnish on margaritas because the price of the fruit has shot up. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Harmony Huskinson)


According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the cost of limes at grocery stores is double what its as at this time last year. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Harmony Huskinson)