News / Rising inflation driving food supply chain robberies

© Robert Carner

Now accounting for a third of all hijacking incidents, food is the commodity most at risk of theft in the global supply chain. 

The British Standards Institution (BSI) found that last year, food theft in the supply chain increased by 29% over 2022 levels. 

With the global impact of rising inflation, supply chain intelligence provider BSI suggested that thieves were increasingly targeting basic goods that experienced significant price increases. Food and beverage items now represent 22% of overall theft.  

The number of electronic thefts has remained steady and highlights the continued targeting of high-value goods. However, food in transit is often a relatively easy target, in comparison to higher-value commodities, as foodstuffs tend not to be shipped with tracking devices and anti-theft technology.  

Notable incidents last year include more than 47 tonnes of olive oil stolen in Greece and 200 hams that ‘went missing’ in Spain before Christmas. 

Theft of agricultural food products has also risen, to 10% of all thefts, and now accounts for one in 10 hijacking incidents. 

The BSI found thefts from facilities in 2023 had fallen from 26% to 21%, but there had been a rise in thefts from containers or trailers, up from 4% to 14%.  

Thieves commonly target parked trucks in Europe, and nearly 68% of all reported thefts occur in the road haulage sector. The BSI suggests this is linked to a lack of secure parking.  

MD of loss-prevention at insurance-provider TT club Mike Yarwood told The Loadstar last month: “Across the world, there is not enough secure truck parking. And finding somewhere that is truly secure to park your truck with valuable goods in the back is virtually impossible in the UK.”  

“Bad actors know this and, with a little bit of inside knowledge as to what cargo is on what truck, it’s like a sweet shop for them.” 

The BSI report identified theft mitigation tactics for organisations to prioritise, including collaboration, recognising how risks are changing and having an agile and adaptable mindset, taking a proactive approach to risk powered by data and actionable insights and future-proofing operations, as a new era of extreme climate events requires a new approach. 

Global director of supply chain solutions at the BSI Jim Yarbrough said: “Food and beverages continue to be the top commodities stolen in transit throughout the supply chain. Such products are always in high demand, and inflationary factors have resulted in sharp price increases over the past few years.  

“To better navigate the challenges of the modern global supply chain landscape, supply chain leaders can make the most of supply chain intelligence solutions to help them implement proactive and robust supply chain risk management strategies. Equally, the shared experience of the global pandemic and subsequent geopolitical and economic challenges has taught us that no single organisation can handle supply chain management on their own – collaboration is absolutely critical.”