New electronic tag to protect Australia wines against counterfeits in China

The first shipment of Australian wines bearing a new ‘e-ID’ system, launched by the state-owned Guangdong Guangxin Group, is scheduled to leave for China next month, as a part of efforts to tackle counterfeit wines. Western Australia-based exporter Linkar Group is set to use the new e-ID system on wines produced by some of its producers.

The system, which generates a unique traceable QR code for every bottle, was designed by Guangdong Guangxin Holdings Group, which is also the biggest foreign trade group in Guangdong province, China.

The Chinese market has long been troubled by counterfeit wines and misleading, untraceable labels. More recently, authorities have sought to get to grips with the problem.

The cooperation with Linkar is significant in ‘regulating China’s supervision system for the safety of imported foods and beverages’, a spokesperson of The Economic & Information Commission of Guangdong Province was reported as telling Nangfang Daily.

‘Simply by scanning the QR code, consumers can easily access a massive database shared by the entire production and distribution chain,’ Zhu Danyang, chairwoman of Guangxin Information told Nanfang Daily.

The company said that over 400 WA producers plan to use the e-ID system.

One of the first WA wineries to use the tracking system is McHenry Hohnen Wine from Margaret River.

The winery’s first shipment bearing the code will reach China by the end of May.

Giving the consumers ‘full confidence that our wine is authentic and selected for high quality’ was the reason for implementing the new technology, Murray McHenry, co-owner of McHenry Hohnen, told DecanterChina.com.

Guangdong Information is expected to launch a consumer marketing campaign to back the new e-tagging system, McHenry added.

The e-ID system is reported to come with a smartphone app called ‘Jiushu (the Wine Book)’.

(Updated 17:00 UK Time, April 28th, 2014)