Rising Prices Contribute to Spike in Olive Thefts in Jaén

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Olive thefts in the Jaén, the largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing region on Earth, increased by 40 per­cent dur­ing the 2021/22 crop year com­pared to the pre­vi­ous har­vest.

During the cur­rency crop year, 203,961 kilo­grams of olives were stolen, com­pared with the 121,137 kilo­grams stolen in the same period last year.

Speaking about the crime, Catalina Madueño, the sub-del­e­gate of the gov­ern­ment of Spain in Jaén, said the increase in the theft was linked to bet­ter prices for olive oil expe­ri­enced in recent months.

According to Madueño, 47,000 kilo­grams rep­re­sent­ing 23 per­cent of the 203,961 kilo­grams, were recov­ered by the anti-theft unit of the Civil Guard, one of Spain’s two fed­eral police forces.
Madueño said that two orga­nized gangs had been dis­man­tled, which led to the recov­ery of some of the stolen olives.

“The price of olive oil this sea­son has far exceeded €3.50 per kilo­gram, which is why olives have become a highly cov­eted prod­uct for thieves,” she said, adding that there has been an increase in orga­nized gang rob­beries in the coun­try­side this year.

“This year, with oil prices well above those in pre­vi­ous years, this prod­uct has once again become highly cov­eted,” Madueño said. ​“When olive oil prices are high, it has a ​‘call effect’ on spe­cial­ized crim­i­nals.”

In November, the Civil Guard deployed 1,050 extra police to patrol the coun­try­side and deter crim­i­nals, with agents remain­ing in the fields and mills until the end of March.

Olive theft is a com­mon prob­lem in Spain dur­ing the har­vest sea­son. However, the num­ber of thefts spikes when olive prices go up.

During the 2015/16 crop year, inci­dences of theft in Jaén increased to 275, with 560 tons stolen when the price hit €3.10.

According to Francisco José Lozano, the head of the Civil Guard in Jaén, this kind of theft hap­pens because there is a ready mar­ket for the stolen pro­duce. He added that inves­ti­ga­tions show oil mills that buy the stolen olives are not in Jaén.

Criminal gangs steal olives at dif­fer­ent stages dur­ing the har­vest period. However, most of these inci­dences hap­pen imme­di­ately after the fruits are picked but before they are trans­ported to oil mills.

During the 2021/22 crop year, 37 per­cent of olives were stolen when the fruits were already stored in bags or trail­ers await­ing deliv­ery to the mills.

Lozano said that the main des­ti­na­tion of stolen olive is the province of Granada. Here, the crim­i­nal orga­ni­za­tions attempt to pass the olives off as locally grown.

However, he added there is always a dis­crep­ancy between the num­ber of olives received and their pos­si­ble ori­gin, which make it easy to detect the theft.

• Agropopular
• Diario de Jaén