Californian Nut Industry: Supply Chain, Vulnerability, and Probable Solutions

This paper discusses the complicated supply chain of the Californian nut industry, vulnerability to theft, and probable solutions to prevent nut thefts. It also includes tabular data and representations of nut thefts and cost savings.

Running head: CALIFORNIAN NUT INDUSTRY
Californian Nut Industry
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

1CALIFORNIAN NUT INDUSTRY
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Nut industry supply chain................................................................................................................3
Vulnerability of Californian nut supply chain.................................................................................4
Tabular data of Californian nut industry.........................................................................................6
Tabular representation of theft in Californian nut industry.............................................................6
Tabular representation of cost of nut thefts at supply chain points in California............................7
Probable solutions to prevent nut thefts in California.....................................................................8
Data security................................................................................................................................9
Putting trust only on particular companies..................................................................................9
Acquirement of transport companies...........................................................................................9
Verifying the identity of the transport companies.......................................................................9
Cost savings with regard in comparison to the recommended strategies......................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
California is a major nut growing area in the United States of America. There are
expanded open wide areas in the region specifically for the cultivation of nuts. The United States
exports nuts to three European countries and gain lot of dollars. Following are the two figures,
which depict that the cultivation of nut in California carries high value and consists of a
complicated supply chain. This complicated supply chain of Californian nut industry consists o
both producers and consumers of nuts by relying largely on the logistics companies. Logistics
holds a significant place in the supply chain and it has resulted in the entry of illicit logistics
companies. These companies are further linked to such groups who are involved in the practice
of illegal purchasing of nuts to cause business loss in the market (Barrows and Frost 2014). This
paper will form the basis of the complex supply chain and nut theft in the Californian market.
Fig: Californian nut business in the last two decades

3CALIFORNIAN NUT INDUSTRY
Source: (Black 2017)
Fig: USA nut production
Source: (Bricker 2016)
Nut industry supply chain
The Californian nut industry has a complicated supply chain and therefore, the producers,
suppliers and other stakeholders find it difficult to control the purchasing and selling process.
The walnut supply chain of California consists of farmers, collectors, businesspersons, walnut
crackers and importers. The local distributors of the product conduct the selling process within
the supply chain of USA. The distributor chain of the nuts includes exporters, wholesalers,
distributors and retailers. The role of the exporters is to export the nuts, which are produced by
the processors such as fruits and kernels. The next step in the process includes purchasing of the
walnuts by the wholesalers and distributors of the distributor chain and trades them to the

4CALIFORNIAN NUT INDUSTRY
retailers. The retailers possess shops, cart retailers along with supermarkets. These participants of
the supply chain might vary in locations such as the producing area might be different from the
processing area (Conlon 2016). Therefore, it is required to rely on the transportation system and
the storehouse for easy processing of the nuts.
Fig: USA nut supply chain
Source: (Farrar, Baur and Elliott 2016)
Vulnerability of Californian nut supply chain
California, the major area of nut cultivation in the United States of America has become
highly vulnerable to theft by illicit entry of several other companies. This illegal practice has
become quite common not only in the nut industry but also in the entire food-processing sector.

5CALIFORNIAN NUT INDUSTRY
The reason behind this is that in the case of nuts, the packets cannot be named or spotted easily
with information such as the food packets. The companies, which are involved in the process of
stealing nuts, are stronger in terms of technology and economy and surpass the companies from
which they are stealing nuts. They have all the opportunity to hack the information of other
companies by using innovative technologies. By hacking the system of other companies, they
illegally get access to the data such as the quantity of nuts transported, the place where it is being
exported or imported and the relevant cost of the entire process. They also have the ability to
fake the legal documents of the original companies (Feenstra et al. 2018). The fraud companies
get hold of trucks to reach the destination as per the information they got by hacking the
company details. In order to hide their illegal practice, the company keeps on changing their
drivers to avoid leaking of information. Such fraud companies are spread all over the world and
they manage to escape from the radar of US police.

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Tabular data of Californian nut industry
Fig: Scenario of Californian nut industry
Source: (Gong et al. 2017)
Tabular representation of theft in Californian nut industry
To calculate the appropriate value of nut forgery in California is not an easy job because
there are a number of thefts that are not marked or identified. As per the figure given below, it
can be seen that approximately 30 loads of nut cargos were stolen every year. It can be estimated
from the company review that around 621, 694 pounds of nuts were stolen in 2015 without any
breaking into the companies. Moreover, the frauds divide the stolen nuts within a day to similar
groups so that the theft cannot be tracked.

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Fig: Nut theft in California
Source: (Harris et al. 2016)
Fig: Approximate value of nut theft in USA
Source: (Lawrence, Travadon and Baumgartner 2015)
Tabular representation of cost of nut thefts at supply chain points in California
Given below is the pictorial representation of the supply chain and logistics companies to
depict the approximate cost of nut thefts in California. It is presumed that the companies
mentioned in the following diagrams are involved in the illegal nut stealing case. It can be

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further assumed that the same companies are also involved in the process of producing, selling
and delivering nuts in USA. It can be observed from the diagram that the estimated value of
stolen nuts reaches at a lump sum amount.
Total value of
walnuts in 2016
as per figure
4($)
Walnut 1644090000
Almond 6754650000
Total value 8398740000
Less: theft by logistics
company 1(10 %) 839874000
Remaining 7558866000
Less: theft by logistics
company 2(10 %) 755886600
Remaining 6802979400
Less: theft by logistics
company 3(10 %) 680297940
Final amount of nuts
remaining 2276058540
Total value of nuts stolen 16637903940
Fig: Estimated value of nuts stolen
Source: as created by the author
Probable solutions to prevent nut thefts in California
Some potential strategies are given below which might be used by the nut companies to
prevent future risks of nut theft and the negative impact on the business.

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Data security
The companies, which are continuously getting vulnerable to nut theft in California
should adopt strict strategies to protect their personal information. It will help the companies
from leaking of their information about nuts, the related costs, data and time of export and
import. The employees of the original nut companies need efficient training so that they can
carefully handle the important data of the company. A strong secured system will help the
information from being hacked or misplaced (Marvinney 2016).
Putting trust only on particular companies
The logistics and transportation companies used in the export and import process needs
to be trustworthy so that they do not betray and leak information to the stealing companies. It is
better to use only the old and faithful companies because there is no faith in the new companies.
Acquirement of transport companies
The original nut companies who are facing the risk of getting their products stolen by the
fraud companies should get hold of their own transportation companies to retain their trust. This
acquisition will help in securing the information of the time and location of the nut
transportation. The companies will not need to depend on any third party for conducting their
business. It would prevent in nut forgery services to the supply chain of the popular companies
(Salazar et al. 2017).
Verifying the identity of the transport companies
It is very important for the nut companies to verify and authenticate the background
information of the transport companies that they are acquiring. The companies should check the
validity of the entire document and carry out some homework behind their back for any kind of

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secret information. If they find anything inappropriate while researching on the background of
the transport companies, not only they will become aware but also inform the police about the
illegal activities carried out by the particular companies.
Cost savings with regard in comparison to the recommended strategies
It is not an easy job to eradicate the illegal system of nut stealing in California. Moreover,
the group is spread all over the world and until now, the cops have not been able to find a trace
of such groups (Smith 2016). It is next to impossible to capture these groups, as they are
technically and economically very strong. The following diagram is evidence, which reflects that
the strategies that were recommended for the nut companies would save on a large amount of
money.
Total value of
walnuts in 2016
as per figure
4($)
Walnut 1644090000
Almond 6754650000
Total value 8398740000
Less: theft by logistics
company 1(10 %) 839874000
Remaining 7558866000
Less: theft by logistics
company 2(10 %) 755886600
Remaining 6802979400
Less: theft by logistics
company 3(10 %) 680297940
Final amount of nuts
remaining 2276058540
Total value of nuts stolen 16637903940
Fig: savings due to fall in theft by 10%

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Source: as created by the author
Conclusion
In the light of the above context, it can be concluded that Californian nut industry is on
the verge of diminishing due to illegal theft. The stealing companies are spread all around the
world and therefore they are hard to catch. This system of black marketing can be mitigated by
using the recommended strategies mentioned in the report.

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References
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nut industry, algae and an invertebrate meal for rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus
mykiss. Aquaculture, 434, pp.315-324.
Black, S.F., 2017. San Diego County, California. Jazzybee Verlag.
Bricker, M., 2016. Crop Selection, Cost Analysis, and Irrigation System Design for the
Replanting of a Nut Orchard.
Conlon, B., 2016. The Dynamics of Domestic and International Cargo Theft. SMU Sci. & Tech.
L. Rev., 19, p.397.
Farrar, J.J., Baur, M.E. and Elliott, S.F., 2016. Adoption of IPM practices in grape, tree fruit, and
nut production in the Western United States. Journal of Integrated Pest Management, 7(1).
Feenstra, G., Hardesty, S., Lev, L., Houston, L., King, R. and Joannides, J., 2018. Beyond fresh
and direct: exploring the specialty food industry as a market outlet for small-and medium-sized
farms. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, pp.1-11.
Gong, Y., Pegg, R.B., Carr, E.C., Parrish, D.R., Kellett, M.E. and Kerrihard, A.L., 2017.
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Harris, L.J., Lieberman, V., Mashiana, R.P., Atwill, E., Yang, M., Chandler, J.C., Bisha, B. and
Jones, T., 2016. Prevalence and amounts of Salmonella found on raw California inshell
pistachios. Journal of food protection, 79(8), pp.1304-1315.

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Lawrence, D.P., Travadon, R. and Baumgartner, K., 2015. Diversity of Diaporthe species
associated with wood cankers of fruit and nut crops in northern California. Mycologia, 107(5),
pp.926-940.
Marvinney, E.M., 2016. A Life Cycle Based Assessment of Energy Use, Greenhouse Gas, and
Pollutant Emissions in California Nut Production. University of California, Davis.
Salazar, F., Garcia, S., Lagunas-Solar, M., Pan, Z. and Cullor, J., 2017. Effect of a heat-spray
and heat-double spray process using radiofrequency technology and ethanol on inoculated
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