Thieves try to steal almost half a tonne of olives as harvest begins in Spain

Police in southern Spain have thwarted the theft of almost half a tonne of olives as the country’s harvest season begins and the lucrative fruit becomes a tempting target for opportunistic thieves and professional criminal gangs.

The verdeo – or collecting of the green olives – takes place in the early autumn and marks the beginning of the harvest season. As it got under way in Seville province this week, officers from Spain’s Guardia Civil force prevented 465kg (73st 2lbs) of olives from being stolen near the town of Albaida del Aljarafe.

The officers found seven people “collecting olives in flagrante”, according to a statement from the force, and arrested a woman who claimed to have been paid to hire and oversee a team of six pickers. Police also found fake cargo documents that would have allowed the stolen olives to be sold using false claims about their origin and traceability.

“Thanks to the swift intervention, the theft of 465kg of manzanilla olives that had already been collected and loaded on to vehicles was prevented,” the statement said, adding that the fruits had been returned to their rightful owner.

According to the Guardia Civil, 48 people were arrested for stealing olives during the 2023-24 harvest season, while 371 people were investigated. Officers also recovered 213,489kg of olives over the course of the season.

“In Seville province alone, 129 people were investigated or arrested for offences including the theft of olives, possessing false paperwork, fraud, and other crimes related to the harvesting of olives,” the statement said.

In the same province, the Guardia Civil confiscated 150,000kg of stolen olives and almost 100 five-litre bottles of olive oil that bore fake labels claiming their contents were of a far higher quality than they actually were.

The fruits and their “liquid gold” oil have long attracted the attention of criminal gangs and counterfeiters.

Related: Europe’s olive oil supply running out after drought – and the odd hailstorm

In December last year, police in Spain and Italy arrested 11 people and seized more than 5,000 litres of adulterated olive oil after breaking up an international gang that allegedly sought to profit by passing off cheap oils as their more expensive equivalents.

Olive oil prices have risen across Europe as drought and other adverse weather conditions have affected harvests in recent years. In Spain, prices have nearly tripled in the past four years. Shoppers who paid less than €5 for a litre of high-quality extra virgin oil four years ago have seen prices climb as high as €14.

Spanish production has been hit by drought and heatwaves of more than 40C (104F), while the crisis has been exacerbated by extreme weather in other olive-producing countries such as Greece, Italy, Portugal, Turkey and Morocco.

Spain, which produces half the world’s olive oil, produced more than 851,000 tonnes between October 2023 and May 2024 – far more than the 664,000 during the poor harvest in 2022 but well short of the 1.3m tonnes or so that could be counted on in past years.