Saw palmetto berries: Big business in South Florida also nets dozens of arrests

MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — There's a lucrative business almost exclusive to South Florida, literally growing on trees: saw palmetto berries.

These berries attract people looking to make a lot of cash quickly. But, that big profit also attracts criminals who, starting this year, face a felony charge for harvesting the berries without a permit or permission to collect on private property or public lands.

Martin County deputies told WPTV Anchor Meghan McRoberts that the stiffer penalty is not stopping criminals.

"It hasn't. It hasn't slowed it down a bit," said Martin County Ranch and Grove Deputy Jason Slay. "It's a multi-million-dollar cash business."

Slay took us to a large private property in western Martin County where saw palmetto berries grow in abundance and various people have legal permits to harvest them. Landowners can cash in on what's already growing naturally on their property by making agreements with pickers to collect the berries, sharing some of the profits after they're sold.

The berries grow on long, sharp stalks in sticky clusters. The conditions are typically rough, with the harvesters dealing with heat, dangerous wildlife, and having to push through thick brush to fill heavy bags with berries.

The berries are mostly made into dietary supplements. People who harvest the berries in Martin County typically sell them to cash buyers in Indiantown. Those buyers then send the berries to Immokalee to begin processing.

"100% legal," Slay said.

But, Slay looks for people sneaking into parks and private lands to harvest the berries illegally.

"A lot of times, they'll try to blend in with the people who are harvesting legally," Slay said. "They'll tell on them. They'll report them to get them out of there because they're taking money that the legal harvesters are getting."

Slay says deputies do not spend much time looking for individual people picking without a permit. They focus on larger criminal groups, often made up of a dozen or more people who are not in the country legally.

"A lot of these illegal crews will set up camps and be there all night long," Slay said. "They're making hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. They even go as far as changing vehicles every day and things like that."

Since July, when the illegal harvesting of saw palmetto berries became a third-degree felony in Florida, the Martin County Sheriff's Office has made at least 30 arrests, confiscating 17,867 pounds of berries harvested illegally, worth more than $20,000.

Deputies have learned how to catch onto their scheme.

"They will leave trash everywhere. They do not pick up what they brought in with them. It will be left right there, and there will be piles of water bottles. You name it. They leave you a trail," Slay said.

He also looks for bags of berries that appear to be covered with branches.

"They'll do that so that flying helicopters won't see them," Slay said.

It takes a lot of time looking for people harvesting saw palmetto berries without a permit, but it is worth the work, Slay said. It helps protect property owners and preserves a food source for wildlife from being overharvested, which protects the entire ecosystem.

That's why he will tough it out through the elements—searching through the brush, enduring the heat, and encountering wildlife to seek out criminals.

"However far you gotta go," Slay said.

Slay says it is also illegal to harvest the berries on your own property to sell without a state permit.

A third-degree felony carries a sentence of up to 5 years in prison.