Rural delivery: Avocado thieves pick soft target

By ROSALIE SMITH

The difficulty of stopping thieves stealing avocados from orchards has been in the news recently. Even finding people armed with rugs and rakes on an orchard was not enough to lead to an arrest. The landowner could not see whether there were avocados in the van, which was quickly driven away so theft could not be proved.

Once avocados are taken off an orchard they obviously cannot be identified. So growers have to catch thieves in the act - not easy on an orchard of several hectares with ready access from a road.

Losses have been serious: One Katikati grower estimates he has lost $15,000 worth of avocados, one-quarter of his crop and gross income for the year.

Judging from overseas experience, the problem is likely to get worse. My Californian informant tells me that avocado thefts are common there. Every packhouse has big signs stating that the penalty for avocado theft is a $10,000 fine and imprisonment. Most groves have high wire-netting fences round them. There are even stories of gang killings in the very large plantations.

In South Africa, the problem sounds even more serious. Some orchards have security guards checking vehicles entering or leaving orchards night and day.

In one area, which has only two or three access roads, farmers got together and financed a private security company to monitor the roads. Some have had to resort to heavy security electric fencing. Sometimes the orchard workers steal fruit; in other cases it is large-scale organised theft.

New Zealand growers would be reluctant to install security fencing. The high cost would be a real consideration and, just as New Zealand schools have not resorted to security fencing, so orchardists would hesitate to adopt a siege mentality.

Every South African farmer has guard dogs. If New Zealand growers invested in rottweilers, they would not only have to ensure the dogs did not stray off the property, but also would have to erect warning signs.

Growers know that avocados have been stolen for the past decade. As far as I know, no one has been prosecuted. More thefts than have been identified have probably taken place, growers not noticing that lower branches on trees in one part of their orchard were unusually bare.

This type of theft is similar to stealing stock. While people going on to private property and taking mushrooms, puha or magic mushrooms, are stealing, unless they leave gates open or cause other damage, they are not affecting the livelihood of a farmer or grower. Stealing sheep, cattle or fruit does. While stock may carry identification, once a carcass is dressed it cannot be identified any more than avocados.

The vulnerable landowners are those with high-value products. Sheep and cattle are generally of significant value. But, once the value of avocados falls in the high season, theft drops off.

Here, as overseas, stealing from landowners is more common in economically depressed areas, a factor mentioned in publicity about stock thefts this year in Northland.

But the scale of theft can easily grow until it is well organised. Some stock thefts provide meat for a family, but it is hard to imagine a person short of cash stealing avocados to feed his family; most probably end up at weekend markets or being sold by hawkers.

People winning their livelihood from the land face storm, drought, frost and other climatic extremes. Pests and diseases threaten their production. They take what steps they can to combat these and other hazards; they do not need the additional burden of thieves helping themselves.

* Rosalie Smith is a freelance journalist specialising in horticulture.