The thieves sneak into orchards at night and rake in large amounts of fruit out of trees – as many as 350 at a time – which they collect in blankets and haul away to sell to local fruit, sushi, and sandwich shops.
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The chief executive of the New Zealand Avocado Growers’ Association, NZ Avocado, told Radio New Zealand that the country’s growers sold 25 million avocados past year.
Avocados have become a staple of the Kiwi foodie scene, with one lobby group for the fruit claiming that the number of households buying avocados increased by an extra 95,000 in 2015.
According to reports by The Guardian, in the last 6 months, there have been 40 large-scale thefts from avocado orchards in the north island of New Zealand. But they may not have worry too much longer-this year’s avocado crop was huge, and should be reaching local markets soon, where it’s expected to drive prices down, the Guardian writes.
Until recently, the New Zealand avocado market has largely catered to exports.
“These stolen avocados can carry risks”, he said.
The CEO of New Zealand Avocado, Jen Scoular, assured the public that the current growing season has proven to be a bumper one for farmers, and with newly harvested fruit entering the market in the coming weeks, she expects the street value of black market avocados to plummet. Although even this statement is wrapped in conspiracy: Earlier this year it was reported that growers were manipulating the ripening process, exacerbating the shortage.
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“People want them, people know they need them in recipes, so the thieves are thinking maybe we’ll be able to get a good price for these avocados”. Many are not ripe and may have toxic chemicals on their skin from recent pesticide sprays.
