High temperatures are impacting the Mexican lime crop. “It’s been 100 degrees for awhile with 90 percent humidity and that’s not normal for Veracruz. It’s been like this for the last four weeks,” says Alex Landin of Limonik Produce/Limones Monica, adding that widely spaced rains are also part of the problem.
While the crop looks to be larger than last year at this time, which then saw a shortage of limes, the heat and humidity are impacting pack outs. “It’s hard to cool them down from 100 degrees to where they’re shipping at 50-55 degrees,” says Landin, adding that this is forcing more repacks along the way once the fruit leaves Mexico.
This is because the limes are turning quicker, have a shorter shelf life and aren’t growing to larger sizes, meaning there are limited quantities of 175s and larger. Other issues include some thinner skins and lighter color and the orchards can’t be kept clean since the grass helps to mitigate the stress of the tree.
Holding fruit
To manage the issue, Limonik is trying to hold fruit slightly longer in cooling in Mexico to avoid subsequent repacks. “However it’s hard to sit on limes for a few days with the demand,” says Landin, noting that with the 4th of July weekend, demand was stronger given customers looked to be ordering ahead to ensure they had product to last through the long weekend.
This is even with a price jump of about $10 last week. “It may calm down after the 4th of July because they may be overstocked but it also depends on the quality issues. Even though there’s a lot of volume, the quality that we need to have to deliver to our customers, there’s going to be less volume available for #1 grade. We will see an estimated 35-55 percent shrink when the limes are packaged into a Fancy pack which will cause the price to increase by about 35-55 percent,” says Landin, adding that Fancy limes will be more expensive while 110/150/175s will be limited due to the shorter shelf life.
As for what’s ahead, the heat may continue to impact the crop through July and possibly even into August and Landin says it may affect the limes blooming right now on the trees.
For more information:
Alex Landin
Limonik Produce/Limones Monica
Tel: + 1 (213) 595-8483
alex@limonikproduce.com
https://www.limonik.com/