Discuss about the Size and Moisture Distribution Characteristics.
The purpose of this report is to highlight an issue in the land of United States California. This report deals with the daylight robbery that is going on for a long time and the main purpose of this report is to investigate this issue as the robbers are stealing the products worth more than a few million dollars and they are executing the job in a very sophisticated manner using high technology. It is seen that in October a trailer was carrying loads of walnuts worth more than 50 thousand dollars got stolen in Yuba City. Similar instances were noticed in February where walnuts worth 2 million dollars got stolen in the same manner in Butte County. According to the reports found from a reporter who previously served as a cop, he stated that this is an organized crime done by a group of mafias where Russians and some people from Bronx, America are involved (de Abreu et al. 2013). After the investigations done by FBI, primarily they came to a decision that Russian mobsters are behind the Italian-American mafia, but there are no practical evidence in the hand of FBI so that they can investigate the issue further and personally meet the suspected people (Nunes et al. 2012). The irony that is prevalent here is that the police did not have any clue about who are the potential suspects in this case.
In the land of America from the last few months, various robberies of almonds and walnuts are seen, and in each case the robbers are looting products worth more than million dollars, it is reported that the robbers are employing highly technologically rich engineering to execute the criminal activities. In the place of robbery many a times people noticed people talking in Russian accents and that is the only thin clue that FBI has in their hand (Hillocks, Bennett and Mponda 2012). They are trying to get the clues desperately as the robbers are looting goods worth millions of dollars in broad day light and the way they are employing tactics, it is evident that the criminals are backed up by a rich organization and these cases are true example of organized crime (Hernandez-Montoya et al. 2012).
International crime associations are targeting the California’s booming agriculture industry, which are increasingly stealing truck loaded of nuts, making establishment and the firms falling victim to the efforts to break the spree costing millions of dollars. These sophisticated organizations in many cases used hi-tech technologies and tactics, like hacking into trucking company’s websites to steal their identity (Pitt, Taniwaki and Cole 2013). Armed with false shipping papers, the crime organizations pose as legitimate truckers, driving off with loads of nuts such as almonds, walnuts and pistachios valued at $150,000 and some worth $500,000 each goods. After a few days, when a shipment fails to reach to its intended destination, the nuts might already be in another state or on a ship sailed for the market of Europe or Asia, where they get top dollars in the black market, according to the experts (Grain 2012).
Last year, nut thefts hit an all-time high in United States– with losses a totalling $8.47 million from 33 reported cases, more than the three previous years combined, as according to Cargo Nut, an agreement of cargo shipping organizations and law enforcement agencies aimed at preventing losses. Losses for all four years combined were nearly 11.7 million dollars according to the group reports. Todd Croswell, the general manager of Caro Nut Company said that it has made his life miserable and Caro was victimized almost six times in the last year for a total loss of 1.2 million dollars (Ioris 2015). In each case, the thieves stole cashews imported from Vietnam and Africa that were roasted, salted and packaged in Fresno (de Abreu et al. 2013).
The value of the nuts grown and processed in California, the nation’s leading agricultural state, have soared in the recent years as global demand for the health-food snack grows in places such as China and rising economies. California State produces more almonds, walnuts and pistachios than any other states with an estimated value of 9.7 billion dollars in 2014. Only the Almonds alone were valued at 6.1 billion dollars, according to the US Department of Agriculture (Hernandez-Montoya et al. 2012).
The high price of nuts attracted the attention of various criminal organizations, which are exploiting the weaknesses in the cargo shipping industry to harvest large profits, according to Dan Bryant, a supervisory special agent of the violent and organized crimes programs of the FBI’s Sacramento bureau (Müller et al. 2013).
Bryant denied identifying any specific organizations under suspicion, citing an ongoing criminal investigation he said, the robbers not just some teenage kids ripping off nuts, he further said, the looters are sophisticated people (Ioris 2015). The local authorities are also taking actions. One state lawmaker has introduced a bill to fund a state-wide taskforce targeting all types of cargo thefts. The Law enforcement officials and the nut processors were arranging meetings to share information to help prevent more nut thefts (Hillocks, Bennett and Mponda 2012).
Alarmed by a sudden increase in large-scale nut robbery, Tulare County sheriff Mike Boudreaux last year geared up his agriculture crime’s unit from two to six detectives. Back in 2013, his office investigated a $193750 pistachio theft. No such cases were reported in the next year, but in 2015, six trucks of almonds and pistachios were stolen at a combined loss of 2.7 million dollars. The investigators successfully tailed at least one truck Los Angeles and made one arrest (GRAIN 2012). The officials denied to disclose the name of the suspect due to the in progress investigation.
The criminals do tend to have some overseas connections, said Scott Cornell, who is an investigator for Travellers’ Insurance and an expert on cargo thefts. Croswell said he has put in place new safeguards hoping that he doesn’t fall victim again, after taking photographs and fingerprints of the roughly 25 truck drivers each day who to the shipping docks. Despite this effort, Croswell said that he fears that the criminals will strike back again in no time (Müller et al. 2013).
Whoever they might is, they’re most possibly watching, as stated by Crosswell. He further said that they’ll try to do it again. They’ll eventually figure out how to beat the system and the individuals just have to stay one step ahead of them in order to stop them and get them (de Abreu et al. 2013).
For over a decade producing nut and selling them used to be a very lucrative business in the land of America and especially in the state of California. In this section of this report, a thorough market research is done for the rich nut industry which is nowadays under a huge threat of robbery where international mafia is involved (Olife, Jolaoso and Onwualu 2013). Thus in this section a thorough PESTLE analysis is shown regarding the nut industry of America.
In the land of United States America, as it is seen that producing nuts and selling them is a very lucrative business and federal government earns a lot of revenue from the taxes generated from this business (Olife, Jolaoso and Onwualu 2013). Thus government backs up the businessmen who are controlling the nut industry in many ways. Thus, it can be said that, nut industry nowadays is a rich industry with lots of governmental helps and bankrolled by big business tycoons and government aids. As in recent years the industry is facing serious issues regarding uncontrolled theft of the goods, the businessmen of this particular sector are incurring losses over millions of dollars and that is in a way affecting the general economy of the state as well as it is disturbing the pillars of the business operations (Olife, Jolaoso and Onwualu 2013).
To judge the nut industry economically, it can be said that the industry is a growing one and hold a lot of opportunities to flourish even more than ever as in the market, the demand of processed nuts are very high and in some regions of America, the land is appropriate for growing nuts and all other weather parameters suits the criterion that is needed to grow nuts in industrial quantity (Dana and Mallet 2014). For the last decade, the nut industry has been a huge generator of taxes for the government of America and this industry is arranging the living of almost thousands of families nowadays. Thus it is a fact that nut industry of America has deep influence in the economy of the nation and can be considered as an influential industry in the market of America (Coslovsky 2014).
The nut industry of America is a growing industry and in the last decade, it is seen that some big corporations came forward with the intention to make a monopoly in the business and thus it is seen that there are two or three corporations who are controlling the industry. From this business the common farmers are not getting benefitted as in most cases they are working under big corporations and all the profits are getting accounted to those companies (Chang, Sreedharan and Schneider 2013). Thus there are a bit of agitation among the commoners regarding the pay issues. It was thus evident that this agitation led to a heated conversation with the management of those organizations and the union of the farmers. Thus from the activities of the farmer’s union, it is evident that the majority population is not happy with the actions taken by the privileged class in this context.
After looking at the brighter side of the business, the management of the organizations who are the leading growers of nuts in the land of America is trying to introduce some higher technologies to increase the productivity. It is seen that the organizations are nowadays investing a lot of money to increase the technological advancements for this field of business along with it they are trying to improve some technological devices so that they can track how the robbers are looting their goods in the broad daylight. These are the main issues those are worth mentioning in this section of this report.
Currently the nut industry is facing some real issues in the legal sector due to excessive usage of water for the processing of the goods (Dana and Mallet 2014). Various petitions were signed against the organizations that are controlling the nut industry as the nuts need excess water to grow that any other crops and while processing gallons of fresh water gets wasted (Coslovsky 2014). This is the primary reason behind the legal issues the organizations are facing in this field. The organizations are also facing some minor problems due to the activities of the farmer’s union, as the members of the union thinks that the organizations are depriving the farmers who are doing all the hard work and they are not getting the amount of money they should be given (Chang, Sreedharan and Schneider 2013).
It is a well known statement that nuts are the crop of the poor commoners and the food of the elite society. Many farmers of America are nowadays engaged in producing nut in industrial quantity under the supervision of large corporations which are operating the business in the large scale (Branco et al. 2015). The processing of these nuts are in every possible way a threat to the environment as it emits irritable odor that disturbs the neighboring individuals and at the time of processing the nuts a huge amount of water gets wasted. These are the hazards that environment faces on a daily basis for the processing of nuts (Dana and Mallet 2014). Looking at all the negative factors, the government still backs up the business as the negative factors are very minimal in respect of the profitability this business generates each financial year in the market of America (Coslovsky 2014). The nut industry requires a lot of water for the irrigation and while processing too the industry needs gallons of water that eventually gets wasted and that is a matter of concern in today’s world.
In this section of this report a detailed analysis regarding the five forces of the market is shown for the detailed analysis of the industry in the recent years.
In the market of America, the power of the suppliers is not at all a matter of concern at least in the nut industry, as in most cases the organizations take help from the common farmers and make them work for them by offering them some monetary rewards (Khir et al. 2013). In this context if the management of those organizations keeps the farmers happy by using the method of reward and recognition, they will be content and the industry would not face many issues from them (Chang, Sreedharan and Schneider 2013).
The nut industry is a lucrative business in the land of America, and it is seen that looking at the profitability of this business, many business leaders can come forward with the intention of getting engaged in this business. Then the organizations who are trying to monopolize the business can face some serious threats as the profitability would get shared between the organizations that will join the business (Bryson 2015). If these new organizations can sell the goods in comparative lesser prices, then they can potentially substitute the organizations that were running the business and gaining the majority of the profit percentage for so long (Branco et al. 2015).
As the demand of the nuts is very high in the market of America and abroad, the industry is very much dependent on the intention of the buyers. If the clients see that the organizations are making huge profit by selling the goods keeping a higher margin of profit, they can demand to reduce the prices of the goods and that can potentially affect the profitability of those organizations (Belasco 2014).
Looking at the immense profitability in the business of growing and selling nuts in the market of America and also in overseas market, many business organizations of different commercial sectors might get interested in investing money in the nut industry. If big multinational organizations come forward to expand their business in this field, then the companies who are currently running the nut industry would have to face major issues as multinational organizations with huge brand value would take away all the important clients of the nut industry (Bryson 2015).
The business of growing nuts and selling those raw or processed in the market of America and in overseas market is a lucrative business and there are three or four major organizations those rule the industry (Belasco 2014). It is seen that the competition is tough between the companies and the recent cases of robbery and theft of goods worth millions of dollars raises the question that whether the rival organizations are hiring someone to do the job or not. Experts are suspecting that these cases may be due to the conspiracy of the rival companies (Pitt, Taniwaki and Cole 2013). Companies like America nut INC or Best American Nut Co are strong rivals in this business and they might face some issues if a single organization takes away the majority of the profit percentage. In some cases, police reported that they suspected that Russian mafias are working behind the criminal operations along with the organized crime associations of Italian-Americans, and one of the owners of those rival organizations is a Russian business tycoon (Aculey et al. 2012).
There are not many organizations that are currently doing business in the nut industry of America and the way the companies are losing money due to uncontrolled robbery and theft of goods in the broad daylight, the organizations need to come up with plans to prevent these types of activities (Barkdull 2012). The organizations like Cargo Nut are improving their technological capabilities to prevent the theft according to the management of the organization. They are trying to hire experts from Belgium in order to look after the technical aspects of the situation and they are trying to work on the loop holes of their policies to improve the security issues both in the virtual world and in real time situations. The robbers are hacking the websites to get the information and on the other hand they are continuously trying to build up a team to look after the trucks which are delivering the goods to the store house or to the markets. In the storehouse they have started employing professional security guards who are armed and well trained to prevent these kinds of unwanted situations (Barkdull 2012). It is seen that if these organizations strengthens their own structure of doing business then it would be easy for the police department or the social authorities to reach the bottom of the crime in an easier way.
In this section of this report it can be said that it is the duty of the management of the organizations to look after their own goods in the first place.
In this section of this report a critical analysis of the whole situation is done as the problem is getting worse day by day and the victim organizations have a very little hope to get out of this situation. It is a matter of fact that the nut industry is a growing industry and possesses a lot of opportunities for the investors in this field of business. Thus the organized crime associations would get naturally interested to make a few million dollars by looting the truck load goods. The situation is grave for the business organizations that are running the nut industry as they are losing money in a continuous process and there is not a single ray of hope left for the management of those organizations. The police department stated that the organizations did not have much compact security system and that made it easier for the criminals to loot the trucks. The management of those victim organizations are thus improving their general security system to prevent these kinds of unwanted activities.
Conclusion
Thus to conclude, it can be said that, the current situation is not in favor of the business organizations who are doing business in the nut industry of America as loads of goods worth more than millions are getting robbed many a times and it is seen how the organizations are losing money on a recurring basis and they are losing millions of dollars. The organizations must look into these matters and act accordingly. FBI is putting in great effort to trail down the bottom of the issue and they have already arrested one suspect, but according to the experts, there must be a huge gang operating behind these activities and according to them, not only Italian-American mafia, but Russian gangsters are also behind these kinds of operations.
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