Their main client was a produce importer in Rotterdam who demanded consistency: 1,200 cartons per week, each carton holding 18 kg of uniform, seedless limes, internal pulp temperature below 5°C from packing to port. One failed temperature reading could reject the entire container.
That shed was Javier’s pride. Clean, cool, and efficient. The limes traveled down a slow conveyor belt under bright LED lights, where trained sorters removed any with blemishes or yellowing. A state-of-the-art electronic sizer separated them into grades: Export Extra (48–56mm diameter), Export Standard , and domestic. Each export lime was then washed in a mild chlorine solution, dried with warm air, and hand-waxed with a food-grade shellac to lock in moisture. lime exporter getintopc
Javier didn’t argue. He offered a 15% discount and flew a third-party lab to sample the limes upon arrival. The lab confirmed no decay, no loss of acidity. The buyer accepted, and impressed by Javier’s transparency, signed a two-year exclusive contract. Their main client was a produce importer in
Last October, disaster nearly struck. A hurricane delayed the refrigerated truck from the packhouse to the port of Veracruz by 14 hours. The limes were still cold, but the reefer’s data logger showed a 20-minute spike to 9°C during a highway detour. The Rotterdam buyer threatened to refuse the shipment. Clean, cool, and efficient
The journey began each year in April, just after the Santa Semana rains. Javier’s 50 workers would fan out across the orchard with wide wicker baskets, clipping the deep-green limes by hand — never pulling, always twisting gently to protect the next season’s bloom. Within six hours of harvest, the fruit arrived at the family’s packing shed.