Fruit and vegetable flights, the new scourge of farmers and individuals

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Jean-Philippe Beaucamp made the sad discovery a few days ago. In its pumpkin, squash and pumpkin fields, more than 200 kilos of vegetables are volatilized overnight. “You see that? That, is the tail of the pumpkin. It is 500 to 700 euros less turnover. So today, we have invested time, money also in the plants. And it’s something that doesn’t bring us back”deplore the farmer.

To secure what he has left, he had to store everything in his barn. “We are thinking of equipping ourselves with cameras to try to dissuade or see thieves take. It will still be an additional cost“Explains Jean-Philippe. Release the big means, because thieves are everywhere, even among individuals.

At 86, André Foussat spends most of his time in his garden growing her fruits and vegetables. “I had two rows of potatoes, there you see, and they torn all this”he shows us. The octogenarian ignores who could have done that, but “If I knew it, I would ask him to give it some to taste them”he says. The thieves went through the back of the ground in the middle of the night and won with them all of the potatoes as well as fruit. Today, André Foussat no longer has the heart to continue. “They will steal me more than what I will have in the garden because it is not me who will do it in the future. I drop the garden and then that’s it”he cuts.

Faced with flights that are increasing and growing, a gendarmerie from Arras (Pas-de-Calais) is sounding the alarm. This summer, they stopped a thief in the act on a plot. They encourage producers to secure their land, but also to report each flight they are victims of. “Whatever the volume of foodstuffs, whatever the amount of the damage, a flight remains a flight and we can open a judicial inquiry”Ensures the squadron chief Lyse Margenest, commander of the Arras gendarmerie company. According to several agricultural unions, today, 90 % of producers victims of theft do not file a complaint.