Theft in California Nut Industry: Almonds, Pistachios and High-Value Nuts

This report discusses the rise of nut theft in California, including the methods used by thieves to steal high-value nuts like almonds and pistachios. It also covers the impact of nut theft on the nut industry and the economy, and provides recommendations for preventing it.

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THEFT IN CALIFORNIA NUT INDUSTRY
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THEFT IN CALIFORNIA NUT INDUSTRY
Introduction
With the current tough economic times worldwide, many people are coming up with
alternative ways to try and make a quick dollar. These people do not care much whether what
they are doing is legal or not. The extreme economic difficulties have led to the increase in the
rate of illegal activities worldwide. One of those activities is theft. Theft as defined by
McGranahan ( 2015), is the act of taking something that does not belong to you, without the
permission of the owner. There have been many standard items that thieves have been using in
stealing. This includes money jewelry, cars and surprisingly nuts. A surprising study carried out
by Cavanaugh (2008) indicated that recently the number of theft cases on nuts were almost twice
the number of car theft cases.
This report will be based on theft of nuts which include Almonds, Pistachios and other
high-value nuts in the state of California.The theft could occur in 3 different ways which include
nut processor theft, nut farms being ravaged by thieves and lastly through truckloads. Research
by Walnuts (2011), indicated that More than 30 trucks of different nuts including almonds,
pistachios, cashews, pecans, and walnuts were reported to have been stolen from nut growers and
processors in the last six months at central California. Thieves were seen to have successfully
manipulated the long chain of processes between the farmers and the retailers and made off with
a product whose value can be estimated at around $10 million, these events have surprised both
the farmers and law enforcement.
“All we’ve seen in the past is in orchard theft, where guys take a bucket and go sell them
at the farmers’ market. We’ve never seen anything like this,” this were the words used by Roger

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Isom, president of the Western Agricultural Processors Association (WAPA) when commenting
on the situation.
California is the leading agricultural producer in the United States of America but has
been recently affected by outstanding, sophisticated criminal organizations. There has been theft
of agricultural products and also theft of the equipment used in the farms; it has dramatically
affected the farmers. In California, cargo theft specialist indicates that the nuts can't be tracked
and to add to this using the databases for tracking cargos is accessed by thieves which could be
$500,000 per load.It's important to note that in some cases it was reported that the syndicate
work hand in hand with the authorities and the shipping companies.
It can be seen that more than 30 Lorries carrying cashews, pecans, almonds, pistachios,
and walnuts were stolen from farmers growing the nuts and the nut processors in California.
Thieves have gotten in the complicated chain that links the retailers, and the farmers have
amassed over $10 million in their productions, which has surprised the farmers and police.

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The farmers are supplied with the raw materials which include seeds, fertilizers and farm
equipment to prepare and plant the nuts. When they are ready, they are harvested and stored or
can be taken directly to the processing factories. After the nuts are processed, a trucking
company is hired for the commodity to reach the distributors.
In the previous year, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of nuts have been stolen each year.
Most of the robbery did not involve thieves breaking in a warehouse, but the thieves are using
the industries vulnerability to their advantage through cargo theft. The thieves trick the

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distributors into giving them the cargo. Without knowing the distributors fall into the trap and in
turn lose the cargo to the thieves.
To successfully trick the criminals, the distributors only need a laptop or computer and a
cell phone. The thieves use the identity of a legitimate trucking company and change the contact
information; this would be difficult for the distributors to detect a problem thus they end up
gifting the goods to the thieves. After replacing the contact info of the legitimate trucking
company they then file an application online to pick up the nut. They then reach the pickup point
to collect the nuts and later go missing. After some time the distributors try to contact the
trucking company they conducted their business with but find that the line they are calling
disconnected and that’s when they realized that they had been tricked into gifting away the nuts.
There is also another common method that the thieves use to take the nuts which is
known as a fictitious pickup. In this method, the thieves arrive earlier at the pickup point before
the trucking company comes to collect the nuts. They trick the distributors into seeing them as
the legitimate trucking company through paperwork that they have falsified. In other cases,
trucks that have no information about what is happening are tricked into collecting the nuts and
are paid immediately.
Thieves also hijack unattended trucks, and at times they may decide to load the cargo into
their trucks or decide to steal the whole truck and drive away with them. Most of the time the
thieves may choose to drive the stolen trailers for short distances so that they can continue with
offloading the goods (Grant,2014).

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There is also another method that thieves steal the nuts. A trucking company may have a
connection with thieves of the nuts and may decide to bid for cargo that is not within the areas
that they are used to. The cargo is then stolen, and the trucking company defends themselves by
stating that they had no involvement in the robbery and that someone leaked their identity.
Table numerically demonstrating the value of the Californian nut
industry
YEAR Billion(Dollars) Growth %
2006 5.9
2007 7.2 23.7
2008 7.1 1.6
2009 6.1 14.2
2010 7.2 18.2
2006-2010 5.4
Source (California Department of Food and Agriculture,2011)
Table numerically demonstrating the cost theft to the Californian nut industry
Year Million $
2012 0.5
2013 0.3
2014 0.7
2015 4
Source (California Department of Food and Agriculture,2011)

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Nut theft can be prevented at every stage of the supply chain. To avoid theft nut in
material input and supply it is required that the farmer collects the seeds and fertilizers by him or
herself. They later plant the seeds. After the nuts have matured, they harvest and later take them
for processing. After the processing, a trucking company is hired for the commodity to reach the
distributors. At this point, one is required to verify the identity of the truckers, and the truckers
are also expected to observe safety by parking in secure locations and also use covert tracking
devices (McGranahan. 2015).
Recommendations
The tree nut law enforcement should partner with the nut industry that is farmers and the
processing companies to develop better protocols to safeguard the product.It's also important to
recommend better software/database for the logistics to safeguard the supply chain of the nut
from the industries. So far Westen Agricultural Processors Association (WAPA) and the
American Pistachio Growers Associations have been holding meetings on how to curb these
crimes hitting the nut industry in California.
Conclusion
In conclusion, nut theft has been on the rise in California due to the high value of nuts,
and it is also a contributor to the economy. It can be noted that thieves use different techniques to
steal the nuts. Therefore it is required that one verify the identity of the trucking company and
drivers well to prevent lose of goods.

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References
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201210wrp.pdf )

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