Macadamia nut farmers losing millions due to theft

MBOMBELA –  Well-organised syndicates, which are known to Lowvelder, are operating within the city.

Stolen nuts, suspected to be supplied mostly by farmworkers, are sold to a business in the city which then sells them to two other legitimate businesses, which export them to Maputo and then to a company in the USA.

The illegal trade is costing the South African economy hundreds of millions of rand annually.

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South African Macadamia Growers’ Association’s (Samac) operations manager, Barry Christie, said there had been various attempts to estimate the total tonnage of stolen macadamias.

These figures ranged from between 1 000 and 4 000 tons in 2016.

Police spokesman Lt Col Erhard Stroh said they regularly open cases for farmers regarding theft of the “golden” nuts.

“We suspect that this is just the tip of the iceberg, as I am sure many farmers are not even bothering anymore to open cases.”

Last year police seized bags of macadamia nuts in a warehouse in the city.

“We were unable to establish if the nuts were stolen. Only the bags were stolen. But we are continuing to investigate the matter.”

J&M Security’s operational manager for farm protection and guarding, Hendrik Botha said his vehicle was patrolling Rietfontein Farm in Alkmaar on Sunday night. “They were finishing their patrols and when they got to the gate they saw a bakkie carrying people on the back. When the bakkie spotted our vehicle, they sped up on the dirt road.

“Our security vehicle gave chase. The driver of the bakkie lost control around a corner and drove into the farmer’s fence and then rolled.”

Botha said there were seven people in the bakkie. “Two died on the scene, the driver and a woman. Later on another male died at Rob Ferreira Hospital. The rest are in a critical condition.”

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He said they found nuts piled into the back of the bakkie. “Later on they found the bags near the compound. They were on their way to pack them when we disturbed them.” Stroh said the police are investigating a case of culpable homicide and theft. He said the nuts were worth about R30 000. Farmer, Wayne Janse van Vuuren confirmed that two of the people involved had been workers on his farm.

Botha said a month ago, J&M security had stopped a suspicious vehicle on the N4. “We found that the bakkie was also loaded with macadamia nuts. The man told us he had bought the nuts from a farmer in the Schagen area.

“We went to the farm and discovered that his farmworkers had sold the nuts to them for R5 000. The farmer would have lost
R75 000.”

He said the suspect they had detained told them he would be able to sell the nuts for R15 000, making himself a profit of
R10 000. “He did not tell us who he was going to sell them to.”

Botha added that they had also discovered that there was an increase in the theft of macadamia nuts.

Macadamias are stolen in various ways and throughout the value chain, as several private investigations have revealed

1) Farmworkers are often involved. Stealing occurs during day and night.
2) Independent harvesting contractors steal the macadamias. They often sleep in the orchards and work in organised teams.
3) Hawkers steal nuts themselves or arrange with thieves to steal.
4) Macadamias are stolen from drying bins on farms and processing facilities.
5) Macadamia kernels are stolen from processing facilities.

Stolen nuts were a health risk, as it was established that they are often processed to kernel in extremely unhygienic conditions.

Due to the labour-intensiveness of macadamia sorting, the risk for human pathogenic microorganism contamination is high and extreme care needs to be taken when handling the nuts. In the USA, macadamias have the highest incidents of recalls due to salmonella contamination by the Food and Drug Administration.

According to a private investigation into macadamia theft on a national level, many of the nuts stolen in the macadamia-growing areas of South Africa were exported to Zimbabwe, but some were transported to Mpumalanga where syndicates were buying them. A recent survey conducted by Samac has resulted in a conservative figure of
2 120 tons of macadamias estimated to be stolen annually to the value of R146,3 million in 2016.

The report stated that macadamias are viewed as a premium product and are the most expensive nut on the global market. Apart from the R200 million that is a direct loss to farmers in 2017, the biggest impacts that stolen macadamias have on the industry and economy cannot be quantified.

These are the degradation of its reputation and status as premium nut and erosion of prices.