Rains last week in Mexico's lime-growing regions such as Veracruz have helped boost lime market pricing. "All growing regions in Veracruz got rain–particularly in the North," says Primo Trading's Tony Martinez. "Certain rivers throughout Veracruz overflowed and some of the roads leading into some of the groves were damaged and maybe a couple of trees alongside the road. Though there was no tree damage really–it was more of a rain deal."
The rains in the region lasted largely Wednesday and Thursday and rains at this time of the year aren't out of the norm. In turn, following the rain stopping on Thursday and Friday, harvest halted over the weekend and some harvest resumed on Monday. "Now, things look like they're headed back to normal," says Martinez.
This happened at a time when Mexico had many lime crossings–as much as 700 per week making for ample supply. That left pricing struggling and soft given supply exceeded demand. However, on quality, all of the growing regions were already in transition from old crop to new crop putting out good quality fruit.
© Primo Trading
Pricing picking up
That meant that post rains, pricing strengthened on Mexican limes. "Prices went up slightly though we're going to call that a rain market. Whether that will last is too early to tell because there are still ample supplies and there will be through the remainder of the month," says Martinez.
At the same time, demand is also perking up on limes, a development that could be attributed to the rains or even the peace talks happening in the world which helps consumer confidence. "However it's IFPA week and consumption does tend to trend down a bit," he says. "We usually take a conservative approach during IFPA week on inbounds but we are seeing a bit more interest heading into IFPA week. The last two years we've seen a sluggish market across the industry but now people are optimistic."
In the meantime, there are global shifts continuing to happen on lime supply. Brazil for instance largely supplies Canada and Europe while Colombia continues to grow its presence as a supplier to the U.S. "That means that Veracruz's number one competitor in Europe is Brazil and in turn, it has to export more through North America. These are just a few things that have changed in the lime industry in the last five years," says Martinez.
For more information:
Tony Martinez
Primo Trading Services LLC
Tel: +1 (956) 800-4343
[email protected]
https://www.primotradingservices.com/
