Now, cartels in Mexico shift attention towards lime, fix prices aggressively
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Since January 2021, the average cost of limes has tripled to around 56 pesos per kilo, as per state data. The prices of lime have reached sky high this year due to continued exports, falling production and colder weather. During the crop season, cartels are also imposing increasing controls over producers to fund an escalating war in the state of Michoacán. The soaring prices have been tormenting several residents
Who says Mexico’s cartels just deal in drugs. Now, they seem to have found a new way to make money.
Well, the answer is the manipulation of prices of lime. Yes, you read it right. It is lime.
If you want to know why do the cartels have an interest in lime, keep reading.
Criminal groups have been fixing prices for lime aggressively as the country is the world’s largest producer of fruit.
Since January 2021, the average cost of limes has tripled to around 56 pesos per kilo, as per state data.
The prices of lime have reached sky high this year due to continued exports, falling production and colder weather. During the crop season, cartels are also imposing increasing controls over producers to fund an escalating war in the state of Michoacán.
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The soaring prices have been tormenting several residents.
“The lime trade is a billion-dollar industry and, for any criminal group, it’s very easy and extremely profitable for them to go to the farmers and tell them what they need to pay for protection. It’s classic mafia,” said Romain Le Cour, security and violence reduction programme officer, thinktank México Evalúa.
“The cartels impose the price of the lime, they decide whether or not to pick them,” an industry worker told Reforma newspaper.
(With inputs from agencies)