"Four weeks ago limes were selling at very high prices," according to Rob Cullum from Pacific Produce. "It was a bit of a false situation as there was quite a bit of fruit arriving, but mostly the quality was not great, so the good quality limes were fetching a high price in Europe."
He goes on to say that very high prices is an issue as it brings all sorts of other things into play, such as non certified traders trying to take advantage and this is not good long term for the farmers or the consumers.
"Following high market prices everybody started shipping, which can be ok at this time of the year, but the weather in Europe has taken a turn for the worse in the last couple of weeks with low temperatures and rain, which does not encourage lime sales. We have not seen a full crash in the market but it is definitely below the prices growers need, but this is typical in the lime trade it is always a bit famine and feast," said Rob.
Over the course of the next few weeks traders who have done fixed price deals will loose money, "Sometimes growers have to ship and there is a big connection between the various markets, Brazilian and Mexican local markets and Europe and US. If everything is low then fruit will keep coming, if the US or local markets go up then fruit will move away from Europe," explains Rob.
Mexico produces year round but the main EU supply starts now and with the average Brazilian quality over the last 6 weeks having been quite low, Rob reckons that will encourage higher quality fruit from Mexico, "Having said that, the last couple of shipments from Brazil have been much much better. What we need now is nice weather to push up sales!"
For more information:Robert Cullum
Pacific Produce
+44 (0) 1865877801
Email: rob@pacificproduce.co.uk
www.pacificproduce.co.uk