An expensive Cinco de Mayo?

My wife is going to be upset when she hears that the war on drugs is going to be reflected in the price of her next margarita this Cinco de Mayo.

About 98 percent of limes consumed in the U.S. come from Mexico. But our neighbors to the south are feeling seriously squeezed by a shortage of the beloved citrus fruit. The wedges of green used to be tossed on plates and smashed on the side of glasses with little thought, but many businesses have reconsidered how they use the fruit in recent weeks. Droughts, cold weather, and in Colima, a big lime-producing state, a bacterium infecting trees have crippled production, creating a shortage of limes and other fresh produce. This shortage has led to people treating the small sour treat like a big sweet commodity.

In the U.S., grocery stores are now charging an average of 53 cents for a single lime, compared to 21 cents per fruit at this time last year, equaling a 152% increase in cost, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

With prices that high, reports are starting to pop up of highway robbery taking place in these regions. Thieves in Mexico are stealing limes by the truckloads, including the aforementioned drug cartels trying to cash in. This escalation of thievery results in some producers hiring armed guards to protect this fruit. An escalation that only adds to the cost and continues this now vicious cycle of cost increases.

So, when you are raising a cactus shaped glass to the heroics of Mexican Independence-ish, you can spend some time theorizing your own dramatic tail of your lime wedges great and dramatic journey through the desert and pandemics, sneaking around armed thugs, crossing the border into America, and finally fulfilling it's seedling dream of adding flavor to your drink as you sway back and forth to Jimmy Buffet.

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!!!