Theft by Mexican drug cartels pushing up lime prices

Limes are displayed at Cal-Mart Grocery on March 27, 2014 in San Francisco, California. Food prices are on the rise and expected to keep edging up throughout the year as the drought and other factors have impacted the availability and cost of groceries like coffee, milk, limes and pork.

A shortage in Mexico has made the fruit rare or, if you can get your hands on them, really expensive. It's now cheaper for you to buy a pound of crude oil from Mexico than a pound of limes.

If you're a regular drinker of margaritas or gin and tonics, or maybe lime rickeys, you already know what's up: Limeaggedon is upon us.

A shortage in Mexico has made the fruit rare or, if you can get your hands on them, really expensive. It's now cheaper for you to buy a pound of crude oil from Mexico than a pound of limes.

We've already addressed some of the reasons behind the shortage, including nasty weather and a citrus bacteria, but another factor is lime crime. Drug cartels are making off with truckloads of them worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Raul Gallegos, contributor to Bloomberg View, has written about the lime crisis. He joins the show to fill us in on the latest.