Guard your avocados, says fruit theft mum

After years of nurturing her avocado trees, New Plymouth’s Sarchi Oshima was looking forward to a bumper harvest in the coming weeks.

However thieves recently plucked all the ripe fruit from the two 10-year-old trees she had planted in the garden of her Havelock Pl home.

The price of avocados skyrocketed earlier this year, more than doubling in price at supermarkets, after freak storms wiped out the local harvest.

Oshima, who hails from Japan but moved to New Zealand about 18 years ago, said the trees didn’t produce much fruit for the first seven years but she had been giving them extra-special love and care this season.

‘‘I talk to them every couple of days. I was so happy with how they were growing. I was going to pick them in a couple of days.’’

Oshima, who is a registered nurse who works for the Taranaki District Health Board, added: ‘‘I can use them in everything from sushi or just by themselves and everyone at work loves them.

‘‘I was going to send some to my daughter in Wellington as well and she was looking forward to it.’’

The theft had angered Oshima, who had been looking forward to enjoying the fruits of her labour. ’’It was very sad, I couldn’t believe that there is this kind of person who would do this to others.

‘‘I could understand people taking a couple of them because it is so tempting but to take all of them it’s sad.’’

Oshima said she was now feeling very protective of the remaining fruit and was left wondering if the thieves would return to steal from the other trees in her garden.

‘‘I will be guarding the few fruit I have left and I’m concerned that people might come and take the remaining fruit.

‘‘It is getting me worried because I’ve also planted apple, orange and other citrus trees.’’

Avocado growers are predicting they will have a bumper crop by October as the fruit generally ran in a cycle of good crop/bad crop.