Counterfeiting is a global issue and has been for many years; especially in the wine industry. But advances in technology have given counterfeiters the ability to make ever-more-convincing counterfeit goods. 

The Australian wine industry, among others, is a victim of counterfeit goods — especially with the growing Asian market for high-end Australian produce. These counterfeit goods are competing with Australian exporters for space on store shelves overseas, and in many cases are actually outselling the real deal. Australia is the second biggest exporter to China and growing. However, China’s CTV reported that 50% of wine sold in China could be fake; some argue that it could be as much as 90% for high-profile brands, like Penfolds Grange.

Counterfeit wine not only hurts profits, but it can also do everlasting damage to a brand and put consumers in danger — especially because we can’t be sure what is inside the fake bottles.

Good branding alone isn’t enough. After all, many Chinese consumers don’t know what to look for on the labels, especially when the name and logo are altered to look like the original. If the consumer isn’t able to read French or English, it can be difficult for unsuspecting buyers to discern what’s real and what’s fake.

One method counterfeiters use is to buy empty wine bottles and simply refill them with cheap grog. As a result, high-end restaurants, hotels, collectors and auction houses have now taken to smashing empty bottles to avoid their unwelcome re-entry into the marketplace. But to stop those counterfeiters using highly advanced technology to “steal” a brand, this still isn’t enough.

The good news is that wine producers can use the same technology advances that have led to an increase in counterfeiting to counteract the criminals. By incorporating better technology into identification, authentication and tracking of wines, producers can make it more difficult for counterfeiters to break into the supply chain. In fact, the global anti-counterfeit packaging market for food and beverages is expected to reach US$62.5 billion globally by 2020.

Currently, the layering of several anti-counterfeiting solutions is the best approach regarding protection. Ideally, this should integrate three tactics:

Authentication

This encompasses any techniques that confirm the bottle is authentic. Because conventional authentication technologies are the easiest to apply and most cost-effective, they are the most popular anti-counterfeiting method. Unique codes can be generated to authenticate the product.

Some winemakers are choosing to use UV inks to print anti-counterfeiting codes onto items; these are detectable only when read with certain scanning technology. The downside of this method is that consumers can’t recognise the UV inks to authenticate the product.

The most effective, and, therefore, most popular, method for wines is laser coding. Lasers are an extremely fast, cost-effective way to mark high quality, permanent codes onto products. And because the laser can code onto glass and cardboard, they are ideal for marking wine bottles and cartons. At the same time, because of their high quality mark, lasers are ideal in an industry where product presentation is important. 

Track and trace

Track-and-trace solutions enable the bottles to be traced through the supply chain, right through to the consumer. Barcode-enabled product tracking helps to maintain the supply chain integrity. Coding and labelling technologies make this easy to implement in a production or packaging line.

Winemakers globally are starting to use bottles incorporating new labelling that allows the tracing system to be activated and wines tracked. By having a tracking system on each carton and bottle, producers are able to ensure their wines — not the counterfedemo QR code how wine makers can beat the counterfeitersits — are what the consumer is buying.

Marketing

Increasingly, marketers are adding QR codes or other scannable codes to wine labels that consumers can scan with their smartphones to access interactive (and trustworthy) online content. (You may find this article on QR codes interesting, and this as one of the 5 codes manufacturers should know.) Try scanning the demonstration QR code above right.

By themselves, these tactics are not enough.

By combining a number of identification and inspection technologies on the production line we can achieve a truly authenticated, tracked and traceable product right through to the consumer. This combination is known as serialisation. With serialisation, each product has a unique code, which can then be scanned by a consumer to verify the product’s authenticity. This also enables a direct marketing opportunity and, at the same time, you receive the data of where the product is being scanned.