In this installment of the ‘In Charts' series, Colin Fain of Agronometrics illustrates how the U.S. market is evolving. Each week the series looks at a different horticultural commodity, focusing on a specific origin or topic visualizing the market factors that are driving change.

Limes are seeing a massive increase in prices in the U.S. market. They doubled from $16.83 Wednesday last week to $34.17 on Wednesday of this week.

Non-Organic Lime Prices (40 Lb Cartons)

(Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics)

[Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here]

Although lime prices are not strangers to sudden price rises, these usually happen between February and May. This particular jolt in pricing therefore stands by itself against the last four years of much more stable pricing data.

Historic Non-Organic Lime Prices (40 Lb Cartons)

(Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics)

[Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here]

The price spike comes as a drought affects Mexican lime production. Maglio Companies this week reported that the drought is lasting longer than expected and supplies will start to get tight as the weeks go on.

In our ‘In Charts’ series, we work to tell some of the stories that are moving the industry. Feel free to take a look at the other articles by clicking here.

You can keep track of the markets daily through Agronometrics, a data visualization tool built to help the industry make sense of the huge amounts of data that professionals need to access to make informed decisions. If you found the information and the charts from this article useful, feel free to visit us at www.agronometrics.com where you can easily access these same graphs, or explore the other 20 fruits we currently track.