Macadamia thefts have surged across the region in the past five years as have avocado thefts, particularly in South Africa, warns the latest Risk Bulletin of Illicit Economies in Eastern and Southern Africa, from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime.
“Farming associations say it is increasingly becoming an organised crime with syndicates dealing in stolen produce infiltrating the legitimate market,” it says.
Rising avocado theft “echoes criminal trends seen globally in avocado-producing countries, as worldwide demand has caused prices to skyrocket.
“Macadamia theft is a phenomenon seen across southern Africa to differing degrees of severity in Zimbabwe (where clashes between growers and thieves have turned to violence), SA, Mozambique and Malawi.”
Price records for macadamias “continue to be broken year on year”, reportedly reaching up to $25 per pound on international markets while worldwide demand for avocados “pushes prices sky high”.
“In South Africa, avocado prices have reached R25 per fruit in February this year as pre-season demand outstrips supply.”
February and March are a particularly vulnerable period for avocado and macadamia theft in SA with avocado thefts reportedly spiking in the months preceding the harvesting season, “as the unripe fruit appears ready to eat and prices are high due to pre-season scarcity”.
Macadamia thefts rise as the harvesting season begins in March.
Bram Snijder, of the SA Avocado Growers Association, tells how large-scale and smallholder farmers alike and growers shoulder the burden of extensive security operations to dissuade potential thieves.
Fenced orchards and properties are guarded day and night during the season. “It’s shocking to see how much money we spend on security,” says Snijder, in the report. “There’s a massive cost involved in ensuring the fruit doesn’t get stolen.”
SA is the largest producer of avocados in the region and a leading player in the global avocado industry, with an estimated 17 000ha under cultivation, says the report.
“Thefts range from single opportunists carrying out small-scale raids to large-scale thefts by organised syndicates - groups who have established links to buyers they know will take on the stolen fruit.”
These groups reportedly travel widely across avocado growing regions to target farms and “will often strategically hit several farms in an area simultaneously to divide security operations in the area”.
Large-scale thefts may move up to 30 tons in a single night, “which are then distributed through different channels around the region”.
The bulletin cites a 2018 survey by the SA Subtropical Growers Association, which found how 83% of growers surveyed reported avocado theft was a problem on their farms.
“Most stolen fruit finds its way onto the informal market, as roadside hawkers of fruit operate outside formal regulation. Yet a proportion of the spoils also infiltrate SA’s formal, municipal fruit markets, as unscrupulous buyers may purchase the stolen goods outside the market area and outside the legal authority of market inspectors,” says the bulletin.
While Snijder’s group monitors thefts and tries to keep track of stolen fruit being brought to market, “gaps in the formal inspection regime have proven hard to close”, says the report.
Traceability systems and certification of produce are strict enough to keep stolen produce out of the international supply chain. “Demand for avocados is high enough for the stolen fruit to be consumed within the country.”
Snijder is optimistic - avocado theft cases have decreased in the past two years. “I think these illegal traders have become very wary that (there are) more inspections going on everywhere and they’ve also burned their fingers with immature fruit and then people are not going back to their stands to buy fruit again.”
Accounts from macadamia growers in SA suggest that like avocados, the nuts are the targets of organised syndicates, “which are involved from the farm gate to the processing and redistribution stage of the market.
“Major suppliers that are supposedly operating legitimately are also suspected of knowingly purchasing and redistributing stolen crops ... Armed robberies are also reportedly on the increase,” says the report.
Unlike avocados, stolen macadamias are transported internationally, mainly via Zimbabwe. Theft is pervasive in neighbouring countries such as Malawi and Mozambique.
While avocados rapidly deteriorate in quality once picked, nuts can be stockpiled for up to 18 months, according to Macadamias SA, before being reintroduced into the market, “where they are presented as legitimate produce”.
“The sale of stolen nuts, at a fraction of the normal market value, suppresses prices on the international market,” says the report.
Stolen macadamias, too, are not processed in accordance with industry hygiene standards.
“The reputational damage caused by produce that is a health risk being sold from SA, which prides itself on producing some of the best macadamias in the world, can affect the entire industry. As growers face unsustainable security costs and the potential for damaged consumer trust in the industry, the thefts place the development of sustainable, viable markets for these crops at risk.”
Conflict commodity:
As the popularity of the avocado surges, thefts have been a problem in New Zealand, Spain, California and Mexico, says the report. In the avocado belt of Michoacan, Mexico, “cartels more commonly associated with drug trafficking have muscled in on the business, extorting farmers and hijacking up to 48 tons of fruit per day”.
“Competition between criminal groups for regional control of the trade has led to violence, including several killings, to the extent some analysts have argued that avocados could be seen as a conflict commodity akin to mineral resources in other conflicts.”
