With the trees full of fruit waiting for full ripening and harvesting, producers arrive at the fields and find bags and vans with oranges already picked from the tree, by people who enter the orchards without authorisation to commit the thefts, Horácio Ferreira, from the Algarve Citrus Growers Agricultural Cooperative (CACIAL), told the Lusa news agency.

"We have even caught vans. We have even sent the GNR (National Republican Guard) photos of the vans' license plates," he said, clarifying that "many manage to escape" before the producers or the authorities arrive, others abandon the bags with the fruit already harvested, and there are also those who know the quantities they can take without being penalised by the justice system if they are intercepted.

Fruit reduction

Citrus growers are thus seeing a reduction in the amount of fruit they obtain from their orchards, with negative effects on revenue, and the quantities collected at the end of the campaign will also be smaller, affecting calculations for inclement weather support, as exemplified by Horácio Ferreira.

According to the manager, the situation means that the final total volume accounted for in the support does not reflect the area's actual productivity.

"We see oranges being sold on the side of the road, we go to markets and small markets [...], and we see people selling oranges that are not theirs," he criticised, appealing for the creation of mechanisms that allow for the control of the origin of this fruit and guarantee the legality of the sale.

Avoid consuming the fruit

Consumers should also avoid this fruit, which may be cheaper but may have been harvested during chemical treatments that prevented harvesting for a certain period, as such consumption is harmful to health during that interval, he warned.

“And they can have more serious problems than just simple diarrhoea or intestinal upset,” she warned.

Diana Tereso, from Algarorange - Association of Citrus Operators of the Algarve, also told Lusa that the theft of oranges in the field “worries” citrus producers, but clarified that the impact is felt more in the western Algarve than in the eastern Algarve.

“In fact, lately many producers and operators in the Silves and western Algarve area have reported these situations […]. On the other hand, producers and operators in Tavira do not have this problem,” she reported, justifying this difference with the application, in Tavira, of the Tavira Segura program, a partnership that brings together the municipality, landowners, and the GNR.

The partnership

This partnership allows, through the georeferencing of orchards and the identification of owners, a more effective response to cases of theft, such as those being carried out, or in the case of fire, she explained.

“And the producers believe that this serves, in some way, to avoid this type of situation in this municipality,” indicated Diana Tereso, advocating for a replication of this system in the municipality of Silves to provide more support to producers in the western Algarve and reduce fruit theft in the fields.

Nuno Evangelista, one of the affected producers in the Benaciate area in Silves, told Lusa that there have already been cases of orchards losing 20 tons of fruit in a weekend.

“The police cannot provide this follow-up,” he lamented, citing the example of producers who manage to detect a group of thieves, call the GNR (National Republican Guard), and when they return to the field, they no longer find the perpetrators.

The Algarve citrus grower stressed that the thefts are often committed by people familiar with the terrain, who receive information from fruit pickers who have worked in these orchards, are repeat offenders, and, when they go to court, are released.