Radio Frequency Identification technologies for traceability of potted flowering plants

Systems to guarantee the traceability, the quality and the origin of the plant are needed in the potted flower industry as well as to empower worldwide logistic allowing to meet the requirements of a strongly vertically integrated fast changing global market. RFID systems are now becoming more and more diffused in important markets to track batches of products. RFID item level identification could be applied to potted plants allowing constant updating of information related to the single plant for business management, reducing errors and increasing automation and efficiency. Moreover it can contribute to oppose the counterfeit phenomenon and promote the originality of the trademark. This paper addresses the problem of the coupling of RFID tags to potted crops, evaluating the performances, in term of tag persistence and readability, of different technical solutions at three operating frequencies. The potential benefits derived from the application of an automated system for the traceability based on RFID have been evaluated in greenhouses.