Lime turns forbidding fruit: Cost heats up to Rs 10 per piece as summer fries crops

Colva: The puckery little lime that adds zing to your soda, magic to your fish, and soul to your ‘Urrak’ is now playing hard to get at Rs 10 a piece.
Blame the heat, said vendors. “The extreme temperatures are frying the crops,” said Salim, who has been in the business at Varca for over a decade. The flaming summer has squeezed the lime supply dry, even as the demand surges.
N Gadekar, who has a modest lime soda stall in Margao, said, “I am basically giving away lime water as charity now.”
He hasn’t raised the price of his drink — still at a humble Rs 30 — even as his cost per glass, he calculates, remains around the same figure.
“One lime is Rs 10, soda or water is another Rs 10 and then throw in the costs of sugar, salt, straws, and a disposable cup,” he said.
It wasn’t always this grim. Just weeks ago, Gadekar bought 100 limes for Rs 250. Today, the same quantity costs him Rs 1,000. “I sell about 100 glasses a day,” he said, “so you do the math — my profits have taken a nosedive.”
Even behind the Holy Spirit church, where limes are categorised into ‘big’ and ‘small’ and sold at Rs 240 per kg, the big ones number around 14 per kg, while the smaller siblings go up to 18. Preeti Baretto, a vendor selling only limes, said the bag with 25-30kg limes that once cost Rs 1,500, now comes for Rs 7,500. That too, with a few under ripe ones tossed in.
“We lose Rs 1-2 on every lime,” said Salim. “But if we don’t, our customers walk away. Better to lose money than lose loyalty.”
Those not in the lime business are feeling the burn. Goa’s ‘Urrak’ aficionados— those who swear by their summer blend of cashew liquor, soda, and lime, are reeling too. “The lime now costs more than the Urrak itself,” said one drinker bitterly.
As summer stretches on and the mercury rises, the tiny lime is packing a mighty punch.