New Zealands avocado thieves have started selling their stolen wares on Facebook as police intensify efforts to catch them, the media reported on Tuesday.
With local and global demand for avocados showing no sign of abating, there have been dozens of night-time raids on orchards by thieves across the upper North Island since July, according to the police.
Sergeant Trevor Brown from Western Bay of Plenty said the avocado crime-wave had escalated since last year, reports the Guardian.
"We are seeing thefts on a commercial scale. We are seeing thousands of dollars of fruit stolen in a single hit and people's livelihoods are getting ruined...it is not like just stealing a couple of mandarins off your neighbours tree, we take it very seriously."
Last year, most of the stolen fruit cropped up in pop-up roadside stalls, and small shops.
This year however police have investigated "a number of instances" of criminals using Facebook to sell the avocados.
The only avocados available in New Zealand are grown in the country, and the season runs from August to March.
The domestic and global demand for avocados has helped fuel growth in the New Zealand industry, which has increased from $51 million in 2013 to $145 million in 2017.
New Zealand exports avocado to 10 countries, and it has become the country's third largest fresh fruit export.
--IANS
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