Application of RFID in the fresh fruit and vegetable supply chain for sustainability and quality preservation

Actors in the fresh fruit and vegetable supply chain have to deal with particularities, like sustainability, global sourcing, quality preservation and therefore the optimization of efficiency in their logistic strategies. The consumer demand for fresh fruits and vegetables all over the year is a special challenge of this chain, which strongly impacts all of the particularities. Hence, the adoption of new technologies for improving information logistic can have important benefits to meet these conditions. One important benefit is the collection and provision of information, which can have an impact on the strategies process efficiency of enterprises. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a technology which provides appealing opportunities to improve the management of information flow within the supply chain and security in the fresh fruit and vegetable sector. The first aim of this review is to analyze the current developments in RFID technology in the fresh fruit and vegetable sector, through an operative framework which organizes the literature and facilitate a quick content analysis identifying future research direction. RFID technology seems to be able to bring great opportunities to this sector; nevertheless, several constraints are slowing its adoption. This survey may provide readers with an exhaustive overview of opportunities and constraints for the wide adoption of RFID. The second aim of this review is to provide an updated analysis on the current developments of RFID technology for different product typologies within the fresh fruit and vegetable industry, discussing at the same time its potential in technological and logistical development regarding different sectors of the production/distribution chain. As referenced here, RFID implementations in the fresh fruit and vegetable sector are increasing at a fast rate, and technological advancement follows the applicability opportunities. In this paper Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) for optimizing the logistics strategies in the fresh fruit supply chain are discussed.