User:Mindmatrix/Skunkworks/Agromafia

Agromafia is a term referring to the control of agricultural production and distribution by organized crime.

Italy
Such control is particularly acute in Italy, where organized crime uses agriculture for money laundering and controlled US $16.4 billion of agricultural production, food manufacturing, packaging, distribution, and retail sales in 2012. The organized crime food industry in Italy is vertically integrated, and involves all major syndicates in the country, including the Camorra, Cosa Nostra, and 'Ndrangheta. Its major agricultural activities include money laundering, loan sharking, illegal breeding, operating illegal abattoirs and "backstreet butchering", as well as extortion, burial of toxic waste on farmland, and the use of human trafficking to obtain workers for the farms. It has also adopted white-collar crime techniques to manipulate government awarding of supply tenders and subsidies.

The food industry has become one of the primary investments for organized crime in Italy, and has provided so much revenue that it has engaged in a process described as "money dirtying", in which some of its profits are invested in the black market. In 2014, it made €1.5 billion of such investments. This is partly in response to the decreasing revenues from its drug trade, and greater restrictions on public procurement contracts throughout the country.

After organized crime entered the food transportation business, the price of produce tripled. Organized crime also controlled over 5,000 restaurants in Italy by January 2015.

The popularity of Italian cuisine internationally has also resulted in nearly one third of all food products marked as "Made in Italy", representing US $79 billion dollars of goods in 2012, to be produced in other countries and fraudulently labelled as high-quality Italian food. Moreover, Italian produce fraudulently labelled as organic food generated US $300 million in European revenues for organized crime. Legal producers in Italy have stated that these activities diminish the value of the "Made in Italy" mark.

Organized crime re-invests its profits into expanding its commercial and retail food processing empire. A spokesperson for Coldiretti, the national trade association for Italian farm and food producers, has stated that this has resulted in unfair competition for retailers and producers, and higher prices for consumers.

By the start of 2018, the agromafia controlled €21.8 billion of agricultural output in Italy, an increase of 30% from the previous year. Among them were entire chains of supermarkets operating throughout the country. It has an annual growth rate of about 10%, and represents about 15% of all Mafia activity.

Adulterated food
By 2012, as much as 80% of the olive oil bottled in Italy and stamped with "Made in Italy" was adulterated by diluting it with an inferior grade of olive oil as the adulterant, typically imported from Greece, Morocco, Spain, and Tunisia.

Italian cheeses are also subject to fraud, for example mozzarella.

The agrimafia has sold common grape must as the must of the sangiovese and trebbiano grapes, important ingredients for the production of balsamic vinegar.

Economy
Organized crime takes advantage of economic downturns by making investments in land and other assets. Following the Great Recession in Europe, organized crime bought farmland throughout Italy, increasing its stake to more than $1/3$ of all agricultural land in the country. It also bought livestock, markets, and restaurants for money laundering.

Land leases
Organized crime leases public land from governments via bid, typically discouraging rival bids using intimidation tactics. One example is the lease of hundreds of thousands of hectares of land in Parco dei Nebrodi in the Nebrodi mountain range of Sicily. It would lease this land for €37,000 per 1000 ha, but would not farm it, instead claiming €1 million in subsidies for that land.

Once this scheme was uncovered, the Government of Sicily imposed background checks on all leaseholders, applying them retroactively and confiscating leases on those failing the inspection. This was later implemented throughout Italy.

Poor weather
During periods of poor weather resulting in low yields, the agromafia can sell more fraudulent food products.

Theft
Organized crime engages in the theft of food from producers, transportation companies, and other sources, then sells it to domestic or international distributors or retailers.

It may also engage in the theft of agricultural vehicles or those used for food transportation.