A cold New Year guarding fruit
Once again the scourge of finca owners – the robafrutas (fruit thieves) – are forcing them either to hire people to protect their crops if they can afford it or to camp out themselves.
One producer of avocados on the Axarquia coast, Miguel Perez, spent most nights this Christmas and New Year sleeping in his car – with a bocadillo and the radio on – at his finca two kilometres from his home. Other finca owners are hiring watchmen at the rate of €4 per hectare while others have approached local hunters to keep their eyes open on hunting days. The thieves are active both night and day – many fincas are in isolated areas – and Perez said they don't care how lean the pickings are. Some can earn up to €1,000 from avocados stolen before the picking begins “but they're quite happy with €50's worth of avocados from trees that are already being picked,” Perez said.
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