Emerging Traceability Technologies as a Tool for Quality Wood Trade

Abstract Traceability is the ability for the retrieval of the history and use or location of an article or an activity through a registered identification, while wood traceability is a computer-based system that provides unique identification for wood and lots of other products based on wood. Traceability is beneficial both for companies and the consumers, providing better quality for wood and its products. The aim of the paper is to study the emerging traceability technologies used in wood trade sector and present the current trends and the future perspectives. Current methods are also presented in a detailed table with a lot of information about their function, history and the benefits that they provide. Such methods are the marking method of Punching, marking logs with Paint, barcodes, QR codes, Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID), DNA and fingerprinting methods to verify the origin of wood and the identification system with a micro-wave sensor. Some of the methods are delayed because of the cost limits throughout the supply chain, while traditional methods are widely used.