The theft of citrus fruit across the Algarve has grown beyond the occasional and now is big business with oranges entering the legitimate wholesale network.
“The networks need to be dismantled and the ringleaders arrested,” says Algfuturo which reckons around €3 million worth of citrus fruit has been pinched this year alone.
Algfuturo (Associação Provedora pelo Futuro do Algarve) says that "the Algarve is the source of 90% of the country’s citrus fruit production which has had public support of many millions of euros to modernise the sector."
This is little use if the fruit gets stolen by Portuguese and Spanish gangs and the sectors farmers are bracing themselves for another spate of well planned thefts this autumn.
Algfuturo wants a specialist policing unit to be established that can deter thieves or catch them. Cooperation with the Spanish authorities seems essential as pinching the fruit in Portugal and selling it on in Spain seems to be the best way fo avoiding detection.
Algfuturo has surveyed the farmers to discover the patterns and is alarmed that far from being a series of random, small-scale thefts, the operation is being coordinated by criminal networks with sophisticated intelligence that tracks the movement of the police and the farmers, allowing gangs to swoop on orchards to pick them clean.
The fruits are then transported, packaged, and distributed to retailers, restaurants and street vendors.
Algfuturo points out that in addition to the damage to farmers you can add unfair competition and tax evasion.
