Small food producers are increasingly being targeted by organised crime gangs and rogue industry insiders looking to exploit national and global supply chain challenges , according to food crime experts.
The warning comes after several food businesses in the UK and continental Europe revealed how they had lost hundreds of thousands of pounds in scams where thieves apparently posed as legitimate buyers.
The experts said the number and scale of these thefts had increased in recent years because of pressures on the food supply chain caused by the pandemic, Brexit, the war in Ukraine, and global heating.
They added that criminals were targeting smaller food businesses, including producers, smallholdings, farmers’ markets and farm shops, because they often lacked the resources to carry out due diligence.
Dr Kreseda Smith, a lecturer in rural criminology at Harper-Adams University, said: “There’s certainly been an increase in larger thefts and the number of offences. A few years ago, you’d see sheep being stolen in small numbers. Since Covid, there’s been a trend towards much larger numbers of animals being taken, and there’s been an increase in the types of commodities being targeted, [including] artisanal cheese, smoked salmon and wine.”
Last month, Neal’s Yard Dairy delivered 22 tonnes of cheese – reported to be worth up to £300,000 – to an alleged fraudster posing as a wholesale distributor for a big French retailer. The Metropolitan police have arrested a 63-year-old man on suspicion of fraud by false representation and handling stolen goods.
Smith said: “I have seen a lot more smaller businesses being targeted in this way. The farmers markets’, farm shops, which wouldn’t have been on the target list two years ago.”
She added while larger operators in the food supply chain, such as supermarkets, had the resources to protect themselves against fraud and cybercrime, farmers, growers, and food producers often did not, which criminal were taking advantage of.
Chris Swales, director of Chapel and Swan Smokehouse in Exning, Suffolk, shipped about £37,000 worth of smoked salmon to what he thought was a French supermarket. But Swales said he discovered he had been conned into sending nine pallets of produce to a car garage in east London.
He added that other food companies have since contacted him about experiencing similar frauds, with scammers “impersonating English catering companies or poultry wholesalers”.
Stefan Hauser, a wine merchant in Switzerland and Germany, had 6,500 bottles of red wine stolen last year after being approached by a buyer claiming to represent a large French chain, who Hauser said had expert knowledge of the product.
“I think it’s organised crime,” said Hauser, whose company came close to bankruptcy after the theft. “They’re looking for new ways [to make money]. It’s professional. I think they have their people sitting in [legitimate] companies.”
Experts said the growth in food crime involved criminal gangs and legitimate companies acting illegally, sometimes in collaboration.
Dr Jonathan Davies, lecturer in criminology at the University of Manchester, said criminals would need inside knowledge of the food industry to successfully pose as a trader. “It’s probably the case that the people involved either had some experience of directly working within the industry, or they’ve got the contacts who can advise them.”
Louise Manning, professor of sustainable agri-food systems at the University of Lincoln, said huge pressures on the supply chain, food price inflation and slim profit margins have created “an environment where it becomes very lucrative to behave badly”.
The latest strategic report by the National Food Crime Unit and the Scottish Food Crime and Incidents Unit, published in September, noted that “criminal networks diversifying into food crime will use individuals who are legitimately placed within the food chain to enable and facilitate food crimes”.
