Market Trends of United States Lime Industry
Health Benefits to Increase the Lime Consumption
- Limes are high in vitamin C and antioxidants, which may offer health benefits. Eating limes or drinking juice may improve immunity, reduce heart disease risk factors, prevent kidney stones, aid iron absorption, and promote healthy skin. Drinking adequate amounts of water with lime may provide some benefits, such as aiding weight management and skin health and helping prevent kidney stones. This is because limes are an excellent source of Vitamin C antioxidants, a compound that supports overall skin health.
- Health benefits, nutritional value, and cosmetic uses are the main reasons for increased consumption. The most popular lime varieties in the country are Persian limes. The United States primarily depends on imports to meet its consumption demand as domestic production is very low. A large proportion of Persian lime is imported from Mexico as it is one of the world's largest producers of Persian lime.
- The per capita lime consumption increased from 4.1 pounds in 2018 to 4.9 pounds in 2021, an increase of more than 50% since the last decade. This was due to the rise in the per capita lime availability and processing industry usage. As lemons and limes can be versatile elements in many recipes, the lime industry benefited from the boom in retail demand with increasing consumption.
Understand The Key Trends Shaping This Market
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Mexico is the Major Lime Supplier to the United States
- The US lime market is primarily dependent on imports. It imported 0.89 million metric tons of lemon and lime in 2021, worth USD 892.6 million. US imports of limes have been rising steadily, and Mexico accounts for the major share of all imported lime volume. The key reason for importing is low domestic production due to limited adaptable agro-climatic zones. Mexico accounted for nearly 75% of the total United States imports in 2021, followed by Chile, Argentina, and Columbia with 10%, 9.8%, and 3.7% shares, respectively.
- According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), US imports of all lime varieties have more than doubled in 10 years, rising from 313 thousand metric tons in 2010 to 665 thousand metric tons in 2021, which accounted for more than 99% of all limes sold in the United States. Mexico accounted for 97% of all lime imports in 2021, with the balance supplied by Colombia and Honduras. These factors have increased due to higher consumption of lime in various sectors of the country and demand from the retail sector, which will drive the market in the following years and is expected to increase during the forecasting period.
- Mexico is typically the world's second-largest producer of limes, and the fruit is the second-largest planted citrus crop in Mexico after oranges. As lime demand in the United States has remained strong throughout the recent pandemic, trade to date has been stable. Some large producers and exporters had stocks available to account for any drought-related reduction in production.
