Orchard Crime Wave in New Zealand

[Saltcayman]

In New Zealand, Avocado Shortage Leads to Orchard Crime Wave - The New York Times https://apple.news/AoLLyxnhdSoeZCBSH_MI17Q

With prices for the fruit soaring after two years of low harvests, orchards are experiencing a raft of thefts, and black markets have sprung up to distribute the spoils.
To counter the crime wave, some frustrated growers have taken matters into their own hands. An avocado tree in New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, was surrounded with razor wire, drawing concerns from neighbors who feared children or cats could be hurt

[Tropicdude]

This is kind of funny,   just a couple days ago, me and my wife were talking about different countries and played around with,  if we could live anywhere, where would we want to go.   New Zealand came up,  and I asked, ok, what could I do there to make a living there,  I knew the north part is sub-tropical,  so I joked maybe I could grow mangoes, and produce manuka honey, or grow avocados.

now I know.   

[ScottR]

What a bummer! When we went to N.Z I thought that it was the most beautiful place i had ever been including the very friendly people!!

[behlgarden]

This is kind of funny,   just a couple days ago, me and my wife were talking about different countries and played around with,  if we could live anywhere, where would we want to go.   New Zealand came up,  and I asked, ok, what could I do there to make a living there,  I knew the north part is sub-tropical,  so I joked maybe I could grow mangoes, and produce manuka honey, or grow avocados.

now I know.   

it shows Avocado has bright future there 

[SoCal2warm]

Country has taken in a fair amount of immigration, poverty rates are around 50% higher than they were 5 or 6 years ago.

New Zealand is an exporter of produce to Australia, which proved that you don't need cheap immigrant labor to pick fruits for commercial sale, but now a lot of teens and young adults that used to be hired in the fields are being pushed out of the job by harder working adults from other countries, so it's beginning to lead to a wave of juvenile delinquents.

[echinopora]

You can still find good numbers of roadside fruit stands with honesty boxes in rural areas, so most kiwis are honest enough to leave both the fruit and money alone. Probably all those convict Australians buying up all the property and stealing fruit. 

I've heard the Manuka and Avo theft is a bit more organized than just a random opportunist. Manuka in particular, hive theft has links to organised crime. Manuka prices are high enough there are a few grazers in our area converting grazing land to very large Leptospermum polygalifolium plantations. Some big money to be had there, brings out the worst in people.

Rob