Australia uses RFID to track wool

With Australia facing Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in 2019 and events highlighting the urgency of improving wool traceability, Australian companies (AWEX) have been able to quickly and accurately track and identify every shipment of imported wool through the introduction of RFID technology, quickly and efficiently identifying biosecurity, protecting the country's billions of dollars in exports, and preventing potential biosecurity risks at the source.

While traditional identification of wool packages relied on manual labour and barcodes, a time-consuming, labour-intensive and error-prone process, the introduction of RFID technology has enabled fast, accurate and automated identification of wool packages throughout the entire process from the farm to the warehouse and on to processors around the globe. This shift has significantly improved logistics efficiency, reduced shipping errors and wool losses, and optimised warehouse logistics management.

AWEX implemented the eBale tagging programme by attaching a unique RFID tag to each wool bale. These tags not only contain information about the origin of the wool, but also have the ability to record the processing and shipping history of the wool, enabling both consumers and processors to trace the origin of the wool, ensuring the quality and sustainability of the product.