The Vietnamese State Agency for Technological Innovation (SATI) has announced a pilot project aimed at accelerating the adoption of RFID-enabled food traceability solutions by Vietnam’s seafood producers. The project is a collaboration between SATI, the Vietnam association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), IBM, and enterprise traceability solutions provider FXA Group.
Vietnam, one of the world’s top ten seafood producing nations, has a seafood export market that was worth $4.25 billion (U.S.) last year. Chu Ngoc Anh, the director of SATI, said he believes the adoption of traceability solutions will boost the quality of Vietnamese exports, enhancing the nation’s reputation and the industry’s value. Thailand, another major seafood exporter, has successfully introduced similar systems, and SATI hopes to replicate that success.
As a part of the pilot program, IBM and FXA Group, working with local technology firms, will provide RFID solutions to be tested at seafood farms with global export operations. FXA’s technology will enable the collection of critical data about each batch of shrimp or other seafood; which farm it came from, how it was harvested, where it was processed, its current location, the temperature it has been stored at, and other data. IBM’s solutions will make that information accessible to all the parties involved in the seafood supply chain, including wholesalers, shippers, and retailers. IBM technology will also enable the tracing of individual boxes of frozen shrimp via a serial number.
Once the traceability solution is in place, if a food safety issue occurs, retailers and government officials will be able to pinpoint where the problem occurred, enabling a targeted recall and potentially limiting the number of consumers affected. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/rfidnews-4.gif)
