Prices in the Lime Industry

1086 Words5 Pages
Recently, all restaurant goers, home cookers and grocery shoppers have noticed the rapid increase in lime prices. In the past year alone, prices have risen approximately 70 cents per lime, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and “bars and restaurants across the country have been eschewing the tangy favorite in favor of their less expensive yellow cousins” (“How Mexican drug cartels”). This new trend in lime prices is a perfect example of how changes in supply and demand can affect a good’s market price. Shifts of the demand curve can have a large impact on the price of a good. Leftward shifts of a downward-sloping demand curve, or decreases in demand, result in lower prices. Such a decrease could be caused by: a fall in income, assuming the good is not inferior; a decrease in the price of a substitute good or an increase in the price of a complimentary good; an expectation of low future prices or of a decrease in income; or a decrease in the number of buyers. Any of these actions in a market would decrease demand, and decrease the equilibrium price. On the other hand, a rightward shift of the demand curve, or an increase in demand, raises the equilibrium price. The opposite changes in the same factors that cause a decrease in demand can result in an increase in demand and an increase in prices. The supply curve also shifts based on various parts of the market, though some of these factors are different than those of demand. Input prices, technology, expectations, and the number of sellers all affect the equilibrium price of a product. For example, an increase in supply, and therefore a fall in prices, could be the result of a new implementation of more efficient technology in the production process. A decrease in supply, or a rise in prices, could be caused by an increase in the wages paid to the workers in that firm. Currently, the lime market has
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