Anthony Doesburg: Radio waves help keep tabs on kiwifruit crop

With kiwifruit picking under way in the Bay of Plenty, one company is using World War II-era technology to maximise export fruit quality and coolstore efficiency.

If it sounds as though it might do better with more up-to-date equipment, the system is actually state of the art. It relies on radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to track the movement of pallets within dozens of kiwifruit packhouses.

It's a modern take on an idea used by the Allies in World War II to tell friendly aircraft from enemy planes. Allied aircraft sent a unique radio signal that was recognised by radar, ensuring they weren't attacked as intruders.

The RFID tags fixed to 80,000 pallets by Edgecumbe-based EastPack transmit a signal when in range of scanner-equipped forklifts. The forklifts are also fitted with cameras that can tell precisely where pallets are located, from ceiling markers in EastPack's 42 coolstores in Edgecumbe, Te Puke and Opotiki.

That information is transmitted to a database within a couple of seconds, which then has a record of each pallet's location, as well as the picking date, type and quality of fruit in each.

The more information the better, says Donna Smit, EastPack company administrator and the person who led the RFID project. The company, a co-operative that handles 14 per cent of the national kiwifruit crop, began investigating the technology in 2007.

"We needed to be able to find our pallets faster in the cool store," says Smit.

Speed matters for a variety of reasons. Because fruit picking and sorting happens during a 12-week period, there isn't time to spare to train the company's 1800 seasonal workers. Therefore the tracking system had to be hands-'.

Export orders are made up of fruit of uniform quality. Each truck and trailer carries 40 pallets and, as they're loaded for the trip to the Port of Tauranga for export, fruit is checked and sometimes rejected.

With pallets stacked in coolstores two-high in rows of 12, it could take up to an hour to find a suitable replacement for a rejected pallet. Knowing exactly where to look for fruit with the same characteristics represents a big time saving and ensures happy customers.

This year's volume is expected to be up about a million trays on last season and, despite the worldwide economic misery, Smit is hopeful the lower kiwi dollar will ensure good export sales.

But finding buyers is not EastPack's problem. The limit of the co-operative's responsibility is a guarantee of fruit quality for 44 days from loading on board a ship. Disposing of the fruit is Zespri's job.

Helping to meet the quality guarantee is a key part of the electronic tracking system's purpose. Since the crop is stored for up to nine months before export, the fruit that would deteriorate fastest is the first to be shipped.

The fruit has other characteristics that also determine when and where it will end up. That includes variety - whether it's green, gold or organic; size; and taste.

So knowing exactly which fruit is where is a huge benefit, Smit says. That means cutting waste - providing the co-operative's 350 grower members with better returns - and avoiding penalties of up to $500 a pallet for late order fulfilment.

For the coolstore operation, there has also been a big productivity improvement. At the Te Puke facility, whose nine million tray capacity makes it the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere, 18 forklifts are now able to do the work of 24.

"We've saved 30 per cent in the number of forklift hours," Smit says.

That's for an investment of well under $1 million, which the company will recoup in under two years.

With such a rapid payback from technology that has been commercially available for a decade or more, it's inexplicable that more New Zealand organisations aren't finding a use for RFIDs.

EastPack was helped by a board that was willing to take the plunge, and expert advice from Erik Sundermann of GS1, an international organisation that pushes for supply chain standards.

Sundermann's expertise solved an early issue - the fact that RFID signals couldn't pass through the "wall of water" created by rows of kiwifruit pallets - kiwifruit being 80 per cent water. The answer was to fit scanners to the forklifts.

Smit says if RFID scanning was introduced at the other half-dozen or so links in the kiwifruit supply chain, there would be advantages all round. For one thing, the cost of RFID tags - about 30c each - could be shared.

Why other industries aren't following EastPack's example mystifies her.

"I can't understand it - the benefits are obvious."

Anthony Doesburg is an Auckland-based technology journalist.

How it works

* Data is stored on a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag.

* When the tag detects a signal from a reader device, it "wakes up" and sends out radio waves.

* Reader detects those radio waves wirelessly, and interprets the data.

* Uses include supply-chain management, motorway tolling, smart cards for transit customers, anti-theft tags in shops, timing sports events, passports. RFID tags have even been implanted into nightclub patrons to allow them to pay for drinks by being swiped with a reader.