With Cartels On The Run, Mexican Lime Farmers Keep More Of The Green

*Good news for Latino foodies. The price of limes is falling. You can thank good weather, crops from Veracruz vs Michoacan, and civilian militias that are defending communities from drug cartels. Interesting in an unexpected way. VL

By Carrie Kahn, NPR

If the prices of a margarita or guacamole have been too high for you lately, blame it on a key ingredient of the Mexican treats — the lime. Prices for limes, imported almost exclusively from Mexico, hit record highs this year, and demand remains high. But now the price is dropping and farmers couldn’t be happier.

You can see it firsthand at the outdoor wholesale lime market in Apatzingan, Michoacan. Dozens of buyers stand in the dirt parking lot waiting for beat-up pickup trucks to roll in. The men rush to the backs of the trucks, filled high with crates of limes. Here the round fruit is known as green gold.

Lime buyer Geraldo Fernandez scrambles up the back of the crates and peers over the top. “The trucks barely stop and the limes are sold … they’re selling like hotcakes,” he says in Spanish.

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[Photo by lab604/Flickr]