May – National Strawberry Month

 

The world’s heaviest strawberry (recorded by Guinness World Records) was a whopping 10.19 ounces (289 grams) grown and picked on a family farm near the city of Netanya in central Israel. With summer comes festivals, concerts, and picking fresh fruit from your local farm. Which also means National Strawberry Month. A month we celebrate everything strawberry. But will there be enough to go around this year? Bad weather conditions and labor shortages have created a shortage of strawberries for 2022, but is that the only reason we will be missing these sweet red berries? We have seen an uprise of thefts in the recent years from grocery stores and farms. 

Here are some of the more notable instances in the last year:

-         A farm in Vinslöv, in Skåne, southern Sweden, 420 litres of the strawberries were taken, estimated to equate to thousands of boxes. [1]

 

-        Strawberries worth the equivalent of 200,000 yen were stolen in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. According to police, there have been a series of thefts targeting high-end Tochiotome strawberries since early January 2022. [2]

 

-        A Kroger grocery store in the state of Virginia had a case of shoplifting involving unscanned strawberries. The accused 70 yr old female was later released due to a false identification from the surveillance cameras. During testimony the thief used their own shopper’s card. That along with the video evidence clearing the 70 yr old woman, the strawberry thief is still at large.

 

For now strawberries are still available so be sure to pick some strawberries up in time to celebrate all things strawberry in May!