The agrarian organization UPA has reported that thefts are taking place daily in strawberry farms in Lucena del Puerto, in Huelva, with gangs illegally harvesting between 500 and 600 kilos of the fruit.
In a statement, the organization has shown concern about the impact of these groups' actions and has assured that they also steal machinery, such as irrigation pumps and other tools.
This, according to UPA, entails "losses for the producer and very important damages, since not only are they losing marketable goods, but they also suffer a slowdown of their activities in a key moment of the campaign."
For this reason, the agrarian organization is asking the Government "for more law enforcement agents to be deployed in different areas of Huelva."
UPA believes that, in these situations, "the rapid assistance from State Security Forces is fundamental, given that there are cases in which the producer will be in serious danger if he tries to prevent the theft or denounce it, as has already been observed in the case of Lucena del Puerto."
In addition to the theft of machinery or fruit, they have also reported the theft of copper cables at the pumping stations of the irrigation communities at the end of 2017.
Source: EFE