White River mac theft is a concern
Macadamia farmers in the areas surrounding the town have been plagued by theft, and security companies are warning people that there is a lot of activity at night.
WHITE RIVER – Hi-Tech Security operations manager for White River and Hazyview, Jchaan de Beer, said they are monitoring in the outlying areas around White River.
On March 10 they arrested two suspects in connection with macadamia nut theft.
Myself and a colleague were driving in the Curlews/ Plaston area at around 03:00 when we saw this Ford Ranger loaded with stuff. They were transporting about 24 bags of macadamia nuts.”
He said when they stopped them and asked for their permit to transport the nuts, they could not produce any.
“Our backup vehicle arrived with more officers. As I was on the phone with the police, the two tried to bribe my officers with R500 each.”
He said the men were arrested and a case was opened at the White River Police Station.
Read More: Macadamia nut farmers losing millions due to theft
“Two nights after this, another arrest was made when they discovered a couple in possession of 23 bags of stolen macadamia nuts.”
De Beer said the problem in Hazyview seemed to be under control.
The best way to combat this problem is to build relationships with the farmers in the area to assess what security they need. What does help is if they have devices, which are not expensive, put onto their electric fences that send an SMS notifying the farmer where an electric interruption has occurred.”
Macadamias are stolen in various ways and throughout the value chain. Several private investigations have revealed that:
• Stealing occurs day and night.
• Independent harvesting contractors steal the macadamias. They often sleep in the orchards and work in organised teams.
• Hawkers steal nuts themselves or arrange with thieves to steal.
• Macadamias are stolen from drying bins on farms and processing facilities.
• Macadamia kernels are stolen from processing facilities.
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Stolen nuts were a health risk, as it was established that they are often processed to kernel in extremely unhygienic conditions. Due to the labourintensiveness 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 mac theft on a national level, many of the nuts stolen in South Africa were exported to Zimbabwe, but some were transported to Mpumalanga where syndicates were buying them.
