Narrator: Nearly every lime
Americans eat comes from Mexico.
But lime prices spiked to almost $4 in early 2022,
and stores had trouble keeping their shelves stocked.
Droughts, extreme heat, and disease
have hit farms across Mexico.
Narrator: Farmers in the state of Veracruz are holding on.
This producer has done it by growing
their limes on orange trees.
We visited one farm to see how workers grow,
pick, and process millions of limes
in the face of an increasingly unpredictable environment.
About 45 lime producers are spread
across Martinez de la Torre, Veracruz.
They grow Persian limes, the seedless kind.
Narrator: Persian limes love the wet climate here.
Narrator: But in recent years the area
has faced increasingly extreme weather.
So how then do they grow strong enough lime trees
even without seeds?
Well, believe it or not, they start with orange seeds.
They take a mature orange stock and a bud from a lime plant
and use a grafting technique to combine them.
Narrator: While it grows, workers cut away any leaves
that aren't lime, basically convincing
this orange plant that it's a lime one.
Orange rootstocks like this are hardier.
So when it's mature, the fusion lime plant
will better stand up to diseases and climate change.
[secateurs snapping]
After about a year-
Narrator: But the hard work doesn't stop there.
Narrator: In 2014, lime farms across Mexico
saw a huge drop in production
because of a plant-killing disease
called HLB or citrus greening.
[leaf crackling]
Insects transmit a type of bacteria
that starves the trees of nutrients,
causing it to produce less fruit.
So how did they keep producing millions
of limes with these insects on the loose?
Well, teams here discovered they could control HLB
and a disease called wood pocket
using mesh netting and insecticide.
Narrator: It takes about four years
for the tree to bear fruit.
One tree can produce about 150 pounds of limes per year.
This picker has been harvesting here for two years.
Like him, most everyone working
on the farm is from the state.
Narrator: But in the last five years
limes haven't always looked like this.
Veracruz farmers have faced a growing number
of floods, freezes, and high winds.
Narrator: In very dry conditions,
the lime skin is too smooth and may turn yellow.
If conditions are too wet, the tree will drown,
causing the fruit's peel to split.
When it's really windy, branches hit the fruit.
Narrator: This extreme weather was part
of what caused a lime shortage that began in 2021,
driving prices up 300% by January 2022.
Narrator: Still Veracruz has been spared
the worst of these shifting weather patterns.
Farmers here hope that grafting
will be their trees' lifeline, if that time does come.
In the fields, workers tug off ripe limes
and drop them into these traditional ayate bags,
woven from agave leaves.
Workers can harvest about 2,000 limes in a day.
They load them onto trucks headed to the packaging facility.
Narrator: This machine dumps limes
onto the processing line.
Each one gets washed with a detergent disinfectant.
Narrator: And hit with a spray of palm wax.
It's not just to make the limes look shiny.
Narrator: Throughout their journey in the factory,
the limes will get sorted multiple times.
Some stations do it by hand, others with fancy tech.
Narrator: Using those pictures,
the machine separated them based on their size.
Ones that aren't the right size will go directly
to Mexico's juicing industry.
The perfectly sized ones will head on to get exported,
but first, there's quality control.
Narrator: After they pass this final test,
the limes are ready for packaging and shipping.
The majority of the limes produced
in this region end up in the United States.
Demand for limes has been increasing for decades
as Latin American and Asian cuisines became more popular.
But in 1994, after a new free trade agreement went
into effect, the floodgates for Mexican limes opened.
Now the US is the biggest importer
of limes globally, doubling the amount it purchased
from Mexico in the last 10 years.
To keep up with demand, Mexico increased
its production 50% in the same decade.
Workers here say that demand is a double-edged sword.
On one hand,
Narrator: But the downside?
Extreme weather is making it hard to keep up.
Narrator: The farm can also lean
on that grafting technique to help grow trees faster,
so they can keep up with booming US interest.
But while they wait for what might come,
they'll keep picking away,
hoping for steady weather and a strong harvest.