Clear Vision

UPM Raflatac RFID is a tag and inlay manufacturer that provides its products for use in several applications within the food and beverage logistics. Senior VP of RFID Christer Härkönen speaks to Asia Food Journal about the company’s current projects and his views of Asia.

Christer Härkönen, senior VP, RFID, UPM Raflatac RFID.

AFJ: What are your current activities in the F&B logistics sector?

Härkönen: In a three-year pilot RFID initiative announced in February this year, the State of Hawaii Department of Agriculture and the Hawaii Farm Bureau deployed our inlays to track and trace fresh produce throughout the state’s food supply chain.

Called the Hawaii Produce Traceability initiative, the program is designed to promote food safety by providing product visibility down to the farm or even field level. The RFID system provides detailed, realtime information that can be used to optimize the supply chain, enable recalls in less than 60 minutes and improve inventory control. In the first phase, Lowry Computer Products developed an RFID solution leveraging hardware from Motorola and Symbol Technologies and system software from Globe Ranger.

The system pairs waterproof labels with UPM Raflatac ShortDipole UHF inlays with the Lowry Computer Products’ Fresh Harvest solution to provide real-time supply chain data revealing when the boxed produce is planted and harvested, what pesticides are used and when and where RFID-tagged boxes are scanned. The data is automatically uploaded onto a database, where it can be used by program users. It is also available for public review on its web portal.

Growers can participate in the process by either slap and ship tagging or using a hand-held RFID system. Boxed produce is read at the distribution center upon entry and exit of both the facility and cold storage. The tags are read again at the retailers’ point of entry, removal from cold storage and at the produce’s end of life. Both the distribution center and retailer use a fixed portal RFID reader.

State officials are considering enhancements to the next two phases of the project such as deploying RFID-enabled mobile phones to enable more farms to participate, and implementing produce temperature tracking to reduce the threat of food spoilage. The initiative can be expanded to cover 5,000 state farms upon full implementation.

Asia’s share of UPM Raflatac’s revenue varies between 20-25%. In order to grow in this region, the company has a local presence and runs its operations here.

AFJ: How do your products fare in a cold environment?

Härkönen: Metro Group in September this year announced that it has been using our Dogbone Freeze tags with excellent results in its RFID pilot project at a distribution center for frozen foods in Hamm, Germany. The retail chain uses the tags to automate the collection of data for receiving and storage of goods, as well as to track its inventory.

The RFID tags are placed on pallets and on the locations where the pallets are stored. Interrogators are installed on forklifts and at the gates of the distribution center. The tags are efficient in frozen environment supply chain applications, especially for those where down to -40C/F operating temperature is required.

AFJ: What are your business activities in Asia?

Härkönen: Asia’s share of UPM Rafl atac’s revenue varies between 20-25%. Rather than trying to steer our Asian business from Europe, we have a local presence and run our operations here. In order to grow our business in this region, we are currently working on our factory in Guangzhou, China to be a main volume manufacturing site. We expect Asia to generate much growth when the economy picks up, as we see more source tagging of products made in this region.