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CRIME

Italy nabs criminal gang responsible for cheese and wine heists

In the early hours of Monday morning, police in northern Italy dismantled a criminal ring dedicated to food thefts.

Published: 21 March 2017 11:27 CET
Italy nabs criminal gang responsible for cheese and wine heists
The gang specialized in nabbing luxury cheeses and wines. File photo: AFP

The criminals had targeted cheese factories, shops and homes in the Emilia-Romagna region, known for its top quality produce and brands including Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and Modena's balsamic vinegar.

Their hauls had included 16,000 bottles of fine wines, worth a total of around €100,000, as well as €80,000 worth of Parmigiano-Reggiano, a protected product which is only produced in the countryside around Modena, Bologna and Parma.

Ten people were arrested in the early morning swoop, Modena police said in a statement, while one other suspect remains at large.

Police launched Operation Wine and Cheese, as it was called, following a series of high-value food thefts between 2015 and 2016. 

Officers discovered that one member of the gang, who had professional links to agricultural businesses in the region, passed on the information to his accomplices, who then carried out the thefts.

The video below shows one of the gang's thefts in action.

READ ALSO: Sicily blackmailers threatened to destroy 230 bottles of fine wine

Food theft is a widespread problem in Italy – and parmesan a popular target for robbers.

In total, €6 million worth of the prized cheese was stolen between 2015 and 2016, according to the Italy's Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium.

Just one 40-kilogram wheel of the 24-month-aged cheese is worth €500, and the fact that rural producers are often ill-equipped when it comes to security measures makes them soft targets. 

Although each wheel carries a traceable watermark, it is likely that thieves simply cut up the cheese before selling it at provincial markets.

In order to counteract the phenomenon, police last year announced plans to step up night patrols in countryside areas and stopping and searching vans in a bid to catch gangs of cheese robbers. 

Italians are very protective of their precious parmesan, which in addition to thieves, also faces threats from the online auction world. Online sales of fake versions of the cheese – which is protected by EU food policy – cost producers millions each year.

And in 2015, the consortium of Parmigiano Reggiano producers was forced to take legal action against adult video website PornHub over a “vile and offensive” ad campaign which referred to the luxury cheese.

 

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CLIMATE CRISIS

‘Extreme’ climate blamed for world’s worst wine harvest in 62 years

World wine production dropped 10 percent last year, the biggest fall in more than six decades, because of "extreme" climate changes, the body that monitors the trade said on Thursday.

Published: 26 April 2024 08:48 CEST
'Extreme' climate blamed for world's worst wine harvest in 62 years

“Extreme environmental conditions” including droughts, fires and other problems with climate were mostly to blame for the drastic fall, said the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) that covers nearly 50 wine producing countries.

Australia and Italy suffered the worst, with 26 and 23 percent drops. Spain lost more than a fifth of its production. Harvests in Chile and South Africa were down by more than 10 percent.

The OIV said the global grape harvest was the worst since 1961, and worse even than its early estimates in November.

In further bad news for winemakers, customers drank three per cent less wine in 2023, the French-based intergovernmental body said.

Director John Barker highlighted “drought, extreme heat and fires, as well as heavy rain causing flooding and fungal diseases across major northern and southern hemisphere wine producing regions.”

Although he said climate problems were not solely to blame for the drastic fall, “the most important challenge that the sector faces is climate change.

“We know that the grapevine, as a long-lived plant cultivated in often vulnerable areas, is strongly affected by climate change,” he added.

France bucked the falling harvest trend, with a four percent rise, making it by far the world’s biggest wine producer.

Wine consumption last year was however at its lowest level since 1996, confirming a fall-off over the last five years, according to the figures.

The trend is partly due to price rises caused by inflation and a sharp fall in wine drinking in China – down a quarter – due to its economic slowdown.

The Portuguese, French and Italians remain the world’s biggest wine drinkers per capita.

Barker said the underlying decrease in consumption is being “driven by demographic and lifestyle changes. But given the very complicated influences on global demand at the moment,” it is difficult to know whether the fall will continue.

“What is clear is that inflation is the dominant factor affecting demand in 2023,” he said.

Land given over to growing grapes to eat or for wine fell for the third consecutive year to 7.2 million hectares (17.7 million acres).

But India became one of the global top 10 grape producers for the first time with a three percent rise in the size of its vineyards.

France, however, has been pruning its vineyards back slightly, with its government paying winemakers to pull up vines or to distil their grapes.

The collapse of the Italian harvest to its lowest level since 1950 does not necessarily mean there will be a similar contraction there, said Barker.

Between floods and hailstones, and damp weather causing mildew in the centre and south of the country, the fall was “clearly linked to meteorological conditions”, he said.

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