Fruit Theft In New Zealand 'Bigger Problem Than We Realise'

Wednesday, 19 June 2024, 5:48 pm
Article: RNZ

A blueberry grower who had hundreds of kilos of berries stolen has been talking to other growers about preventing such thefts.

In January, staff returned from a few days off to find rows of blueberry plants at a Hawke's Bay farm had been stripped of fruit, Bay Blueberries owner Marian Hirst said.

It was devastating as it was the first crop since Cyclone Gabrielle tore through the region, she said.

"The rows were completely bare, they took everything, there wasn't even a berry on the ground, basically someone had come in overnight and harvested all the fruit, it would have taken six to eight people several hours to do," Hirst said.

"We have cameras on site but unfortunately the footage wasn't clear enough for the police."

Hirst said it was a straight loss to the business as the fruit was not covered by insurance.

"We've ramped up security since. We have more cameras and more lights to put people off coming onto the property."

Not wanting our other growers to go through the same thing, Bay Blueberries held a get-together for blueberry growers on Tuesday to talk about crime prevention.

"About 60 growers came and what we discovered is that everybody knows of someone who has been affected by theft, it's not just blueberries.

"We know avocados have had a lot of trouble with fruit being stolen, and growers all know someone that's had equipment stolen."

It was a problem throughout New Zealand, she said, and was far worse than first thought.

"We need to get a database going to try and capture information because it's a bigger problem than we realise."

Theft of fruit around harvesting season happened every year, Hawke's Bay Grower's Association president Brydon Nesbit said in January.

"There's been growers of apples that have had trucks and forklifts come into their blocks at night. Organised groups picked 20 or 30 bins of fruit - containing 2000 to 2500 apples."

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