Mar 9, 2024 at 11:06 PM Update: 28 minutes ago
In large parts of Spain, olive oil is the product most often stolen from supermarkets, according to figures released by the newspaper Financial Times has seen. According to security guards, olive oil has become increasingly scarce due to extreme weather. This makes it popular with criminal gangs.
Due to extreme weather caused by climate change, Spain has experienced extreme heat and drought in recent years. As a result, the olive harvest is becoming increasingly lower, resulting in higher prices. The price per liter has almost tripled in the past year to around 14 euros in the supermarket. This has put olive oil on the radar of criminal gangs, who hope to make big profits from it on the black market.
While thieves in supermarkets used to mainly make off with razor blades, alcohol and the exclusive Iberico ham, olive oil is now the most stolen product in eight of the seventeenth Spanish regions. More and more supermarkets are therefore providing bottles of olive oil with a bottle lock, but that has not yet stopped gangs.
According to The Times It’s not just supermarkets that are affected by theft. Olive groves and producers are also increasingly confronted with it. The newspaper writes that sometimes tens of thousands of liters are stolen at the same time.
In December, eleven people could arrested thanks to cooperation between Spanish and Italian police forces. 5,000 liters of olive oil of mediocre quality were found. The group planned to sell this as more expensive extra virgin olive oil.
Spain is the largest producer of olive oil in the world. Experts expect the harvest this season to reach 800,000 tons. That is more than the past two seasons, but considerably less than the 1.3 million tons that is usual for the country, writes The Guardian.
Beeld: Getty Images
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SpainEconomyExtreme weather
2024-03-09 22:06:06
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