The South African Macadamia Industry has projected estimated losses of revenue due to increasing cases of theft of the macadamia crops. Producers of the subtropical fruit have compiled a report which details a growing trend of the theft of macadamia crops in provinces like Limpopo.
South Africa exports close to 50% of the nut and shell macadamia products to countries in Asia and North America. The operations manager of the South African Subtropical Growers Association, Barry Christie says the losses run into millions.
“Losses due to theft is estimated to be slightly more than two thousand tons which is quite a high percentage and to the value of about 140, 150 million rand so that is quite a lot of money and big losses to the industry and to the South African economy.”
