Nestlé says about 12 tons of KitKat products were stolen while being transported from its factory in central Italy to Poland, in a cargo theft now under investigation by local authorities and supply chain partners.
In a statement posted by KitKat, the company said there are no consumer safety concerns and that supply has not been affected.
The theft comes against a wider backdrop of cargo crime across Europe. An old study conducted for the European Commission estimated cargo theft costs businesses in the region more than €8.2 billion a year.
The industry body TAPA has also revealed that its intelligence system collected 157,421 cargo crime occurrences in 129 countries from 2022 to 2024, which shows how frequent the problem has become.
Food items are commonly stolen from cargo, and chocolate is typically thought to be easy to resell because it is widely available, easy to transfer, and always in demand.
The KitKat shipment was headed to Poland, where chocolate prices rose sharply last year. With cocoa prices also staying well above past averages, the stolen load likely carried significant value.
No further details about suspects or the recovery of the shipment were immediately announced.
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