Market News

Canadian RFID Centre Opens Doors

The new RFID Centre has opened its doors in Markham, Ont., offering Canadian companies the opportunity to experience business processes in the perishables, consumer packaged goods and retail industries that are based on the wireless system known as Radio Frequency Identification. The Canadian RFID Centre, which was launched with an initial investment of $1.7 million, is designed to give Canadian food producers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers the chance to better understand, experience, experiment with and test the latest RFID technologies and to demonstrate the potential business case for tracking products. According to IDC, worldwide RFID consulting, implementation and managed services expenditures are forecast to be approximately US$800 million in 2006. The Centre's founding partners are: the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors, the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, the Canadian Produce Marketing Association, EPCglobal Canada (GS1 Canada), Food and Consumer Products of Canada, IBM Canada Ltd., Intermec Technologies Corporation, Symbol Technologies Inc., and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Source: Canadian Grocer E-Newsletter, October 13,2005.