All locally manufactured products in Bahrain will carry universal barcodes under a contract signed between Bahrain Export Development Society (BEDS) and the world's leading barcoding firm. The contract signed with the European Article Numbering International (EAN) was hailed by Bahraini exporters as a breakthrough as it would allow their goods easier access to the European Union and beyond, a Gulf Daily News report said.
The Dutch-based company is the world's leading barcoding firm, establishing a global multi-industry system of identification and communication for products, services and locations.
BEDS chairman Yousef Mashal described the new system as revolutionary, and said Bahrain's barcode network would be up and running by early September.
"It will take us several months to install the labelling and identification equipment and to train our people," he said. "But once everything is operational, it will ease the identification, tracking, storage and re-ordering process of Bahraini products."
The deal was announced at a Press conference at BEDS headquarters, in Sitra Industrial Park. The conference was attended by EAN director Peter Gietelink and BEDS board member Raed Adeeb Al Samahiji.
The cost of the contract includes a one-off registration fee of 15,000 euros ($12,200) for supply and equipment costs and an annual fee of five per cent of BEDS annual earned income.
Mashal noted that EANs Uniform Code Council facilitates communication between all trading partners participating in any supply chain, including raw materials suppliers, manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, retailers, clients and consumers.
The system is a set of standards enabling the efficient management of global, multi-industry supply chains by uniquely identifying products, shipping units, assets, locations and services, he said.
Mashal said identification numbers could be represented in barcode symbols to enable electronic readings at sale points, at warehouse receiving centres, or at any business process point. Al Samahiji later appealed to the country's manufacturing sector to support the new identification network.
He said that as Europe and North America moved increasingly to electronic commerce, goods that do not comply with international identification standards would increasingly be refused by importers.
Al Samahiji said the EU increasingly accounted for a high percentage of Bahraini exports.
Bahrain's biggest trade partners are implementing electronic supply chain management systems, he said. "Unless manufacturers here comply with international product identification standards, exports will drop," he warned.
