Posted on 06/21/2021 10:10:51 PM PDT by blam
Avocado farmers in South Africa are combating thieves who have found that money grows on trees.
The Wall Street Journal interviewed avocado farmer Mark Alcock who has a 170-acre farm in South Africa, the world’s sixth-largest avocado exporter. He said his farm has a motion-activated infrared camera system operated by an ex-military soldier and protects the property from criminals.
Alcock is not alone. As prices increase due to cyclical factors, other farms have installed security systems to monitor their crops.
“As the value of the product rises, the accessibility of it rises because more orchards are being planted,” said Howard Blight, who farms avocados on a 350-acre farm. He said his farm is guarded by an electric fence and guards.
“It seems a bit drastic,” Blight said. “But avocados are the green gold.”
Avocado theft used to be minimal but is now rampant because criminal gangs are getting involved and raiding farms, then pushing the fruit into legitimate markets, according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, an NGO.
The latest raids have disrupted the supply and the price of avocados across South Africa. Much of the fruit is destined for Europe, where wholesalers pay up to $2 per pound.
Perhaps the reason why criminal gangs are stealing avocado is that the financial legacy of the virus pandemic has doomed the country and will likely result in longer-term structural effects. This includes high levels of debt and soaring wealth inequality, pushing those who are jobless into criminal gangs.
Francisco Díaz, co-owner of Oh My Avo, Cape Town’s first avocado bar, said the crime wave is producing headaches for his business.
“This year it was a little bit crazy. Plenty of people are stealing them, so there was a big shortage,” Díaz said.
Craig Coppen, co-director of Canine Security, provides security services to more than 30 commercial growers across the country, monitoring 3,700 acres.
On the other side of the world, drug cartels in Mexico have diversified from pumping cocaine and fentanyl into the US to more legitimate operations, including developing avocado farms or seizing them from local farmers. This lucrative business is feeding the West’s craze for avocado toast, popularized by millennials.
Seems like plenty-o-peeps need to be DRT.
Cartels in Mexico and Central America not exempted.
“ Perhaps the reason why criminal gangs are stealing avocado is that the financial legacy of the virus pandemic has doomed the country and will likely result in longer-term structural effects. This includes high levels of debt and soaring wealth inequality, pushing those who are jobless into criminal gangs.”
Or perhaps the criminals in South Africa are acting like their counterparts do in Chicago, Oakland, Detroit etc.
They steal pecans in Georgia.
You never know what the next food fad will be. The Avocade wave has lasted much longer than I had expected. I suppose for some, it has become a staple food product, one that is always in the house. To me, Avocados are ‘okay’, but most taste like lightly buttered paper to me.
Another ‘big’ food with some younger people is that Himalayan Salt, large clear crystals. Especially the pink kind.
they aint cheap.
I’ve been eating avocados since I can remember as a kid. I find ones grown in my state.
I’ve never ate one or even tasted it.
I think they make guacamole out of avocados, and I’m not going to eat something that looks like a bowl of sinus infection!
“Lightly buttered paper...”
Good description!
See my previous post. My wife loves avocados. She’ll sit there with nothing but a plate and a salt shaker, and she thinks it’s nirvana. Me? I can’t taste anything. They’re bland. I suppose it’s all in the wiring in our brains, but I’m ambivalent as far as taste and texture. Not bad, not good, it’s like a mouthful of Charmin to me.
Perhaps it is because South Africa suffered a Communist Revolution that started killing White farmers and stealing their farms. A Revolution the liberal media encouraged and then ignored after it became a disaster. The same ignorant media that apparently has no idea of what happened here.
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