since a lot of food gets exported to the developed countries, would the customers in those countries still be able to trace down the origin of the product? That is, if I buy durian in America, would I be able to trace its origin and path atnleast until it reached America?
also, I have to disagree about focusing on developing markets only, the World needs such tech everywhere. I dont see how expensive rfid tags can be used on 50 cent lettuce, so I do think that you should think big!
Yes, anyone can download the TE-FOOD Consumer app, and check TE-FOOD labels. And exactly as you wrote, you can be able to trace back the food products until they reached America in that case. But it depends on how the food products are sold in retail.
An example: Vietnam is one of the biggest exporter of Pangasius fish. A massive amount of Pangasius fish is exported to Europe. If the European importer buys the fish pre-packaged, then the TE-FOOD label stickers will be on each package, so European consumers can check the origin information. But if the fish is bought in bulk, and the retail packaging is done in an European food processing plant, then no TE-FOOD label will be applied to the retail packages.
We focus on emerging markets, but we don't refuse customers in other markets. In the example above, it can be wise for us to contact the European importer to join TE-FOOD, so they can provide full traceability for the fish products, which is a business advantage for them.
And you are right with RFID. RFID is a great technology, but in the livestock and fresh food industry it is used only on cattles in developed countries, because they live longer, and they are more expensive. For anything else, RFID is way too expensive.