Marco Vela Reyes, the secretary general of the League of Agrarian Communities and Farmers Unions, said that lemon prices had gone from 6 pesos per kilogram to more than 35 pesos because of a sharp drop in local production caused by a lack of rain.
In an interview, Vela Reyes said that, due to the drop in local production, they had to buy the product from other states, such as Veracruz, Chiapas to meet local demand, which in turn had increased prices significantly.
"The shortage of lemon shot the price of a kilo up to 35 pesos; there wasn't a good harvest because of the lack of rain. We expected to produce 20,000 tons of lemon but only reached about 5,000," he added.
"There was enough production to supply the local demand for a short while and that's why a kilo cost around 6 pesos per kilogram. However, it wasn't possible to maintain that price because of the drop in production. That, of course, bothered people," he said.
Vela Reyes said merchants paid about 550 pesos for a 20 or 25 kilo box of lemon. Naturally, these merchants would then have to increase prices to make a profit.
Vela Reyes stressed that they would have to continue purchasing the product outside the entity until the local culture returns to its normal levels and lemon prices decrease.
The Akil juicing company, one of the most important citrus processing plants in the entity, has stopped operations and is no longer processing the Italian lemon juice concentrate it sells.
"According to estimates, the situation could improve by June so there would be enough local Italian lemon to meet domestic and international demand for concentrate," he concluded.
