The Guadalajara Reporter

Colima lime growers ask for government protection

Colima lime growers say their harvests have  decreased by 30 percent this year and the market uncertainty surrounding the citrus fruit is threatening their livelihoods as thieves and “middleman” reap all the profits. 

The growers say they feel helpless as criminals target their big-ticket product on a daily basis.

Thieves are not only stealing limes from orchards but holding up trucks transporting the fruit, Jose Guadalupe Garcia of Colima’s Lime Council told reporters this week.

Garcia is demanding that Colima state authorities take special measures to protect lime growers from the determined highway robbers.  Many farmers have formed self-defense groups to protect their orchards from raiders.

Garcia says the farmers are selling limes between 15 and 22 pesos a kilo, depending on the quality of the fruit.  But the fruit’s journey through unscrupulous “middlemen” (packers, distributors , wholesalers) to retailers is pushing up the costs, which have reached a whopping 100 pesos a kilo in some parts of Mexico in recent months.

Limes throughout Mexico have been devastated by the yellow dragon disease, a plague spread by insects that is often referred to in English as citrus greening.  Mexican Agriculture Department officials estimate that one million hectares is affected in 23 states.