Food traceability (tracking technologies) comprises the ability to identify and validate various stages of the food chain from production to distribution. It involves recognizing the origin of the food and its destination, from where it will be distributed to different end users. This system is essential for food investigations and is crucial in global food trade as multi-ingredient food includes materials from variety of food chain & countries. This makes importers dependent upon traceability systems of other countries up to the point of import. This report provides comprehensive analyses of the equipment used in global food traceability (tracking technologies) market, which include PDA with GPS, thermal printers, 2D & 1D scanners, tags & labels, sensors, and others. Moreover, different technologies employed in the market are systematically mentioned with their shares, including, RFID/RTLS, GPS, barcode, infrared, and biometrics.

The distribution environment is rapidly evolving with systems and processes being upgraded at a rapid pace. Changes are being spurred by expanding competition, accelerating digitization, constant disintermediation, and consumerization of expectations. B2B commerce is witnessing the increase in expectations that are largely associated with B2C such as transparent pricing and communities and social connections. This is expected to continue further with a focus on lowering costs, improving efficiencies, and opening up to new opportunities. With the commercial lawn mower market highly time-sensitive, distributors are increasingly focusing on extending their reach to improve the speed to market maintenance parts and service Lawn mowers are also available to end-users through online OEMs’ e-commerce portals and online direct-to-consumer stores such as Amazon, Argos, eBay, RobotShop, Sainsbury's, MowDirect, Alibaba, and AliExpress. In 2018, retail sales constituted 88.33% of the distribution model, and online sales constitute the rest.

Although Turkey has initiated a privatisation and liberalisation process of its mining industry, the state still has controlling stakes in the key companies operating in the sector. At the same time, the government sees private sector investments from local and foreign companies as a crucial factor for the development of domestic mineral reserves. In order to lure more investors, the government has pursued a policy of making the business environment in the mining industry more attractive. Still, the political and economic challenges over 2016-2018 are undermining foreign investor confidence in the country in general and the mining sector in particular.

In 2017, Poland was the EU’s third-biggest producer of household appliances overall and its secondbiggest producer of large appliances, in terms of production value. There are 30 production plants operating in the country in the household appliance subsector. Production of household appliances is concentrated in five of Poland’s regions namely, Lower Silesia, Lodzkie, Wielkopolskie, Podkarpackie and Podlaskie. As to consumer electronics, Poland is the EU’s largest producer of TV receivers. The Polish home appliance and consumer electronics market is dominated by international brands. Among global companies operating production sites in Poland are: BSH, Electrolux, Whirlpool, LG and Samsung Electronics.

The banking sector in the Philippines is underdeveloped compared with that of many other ASEAN countries and the majority of Filipinos remained unbanked by the end of 2017. Despite this fact, there were a total of 390 banks in the Philippines. Apart from the banks, consumer and commercial credit in the Philippines is also supplied by other institutions such as non-stock savings and loans associations (“NSSLAs”), non-banking institutions with quasi-banking functions (“NBQBs”), as well as less organised credit providers including credit cooperatives and pawnshops. The largest banks in the Philippines are also the most tightly regulated by the BSP and consequently they are generally robust; capital adequacy in the universal and commercial banks was 15.0% in 2017, far in excess of the BSP’s minimum capital requirement of 10%.

The level of competition in Peru’s pharma and healthcare sector varies across segments. Pharmaceutical retail exhibits a low degree of competition, with one Peruvian company – InRetail Peru – operating five pharmaceutical chains (i.e. Inkafarma, Vanttive, BTL, FASA and MiFarma), which accounted for 58% of drug sales in value terms in 2017. Health insurance is largely controlled by the government, which runs both the public health insurance scheme (SIS) and the social security health insurance scheme (EsSalud). However, the still small private health insurance market has recently grown in size and number of players, registering a moderate degree of competition.

Impulsora Del Desarrollo Y El Empleo En America Latina (IDEAL) is a Mexico-based company, founded in 2005, which is active in the infrastructure construction segment. The company has a diversified portfolio of activities, including: road concessions with a total length of 1,436.5 km; electronic toll services; operation of two water treatment plants with a capacity of 36.27 m3 per second each; generation of hydroelectric energy at two hydropower plants with total capacity of 145 MW; and operation of three multimodal transport terminals located in Mexico City and the state of Mexico. In addition, the company manages two prisons located in the States of Chiapas and Morelos, under concession contracts .

The food and beverage sector is highly competitive and dominated by local companies. It is generally open to foreign investors but the government favours local producers. In 2014, Indonesia limited the number of franchise outlets established by one company to a maximum of 250. The franchisor or franchisee is obliged to use at least 80% of business equipment and raw materials that are domestically produced. Global food companies present in the Indonesian food and beverage market include Nestle, Coca Cola, Unilever and Carrefour. According to BMI Research, Coca Cola has a 90% share of the Indonesian carbonates sub-sector, a 39% share of the Indonesian juice market and a 15% share of the RTD tea market.

In 1986, the Malaysian government launched the First Industrial Masterplan with the aim of developing a broad-based manufacturing sector to transition the economy away from primary products. The chemicals sector was developed during this period to provide critical intermediate and final products for the manufacturing sector as a whole. The petrochemicals and oleochemicals subsectors, in particular, became ways for Malaysia to derive greater value from the country’s vast reserves of crude, oil, natural gas, and palm oil plantations. As companies in Malaysia, facilitated by the government, have invested heavily in building capacity over the years, Malaysia has become a significant global player in the petrochemicals and oleochemicals subsectors.

Although the global pharma & healthcare sector is dominated by large multinational companies, mainly from the developed countries, Latin America has been quickly catching up in building a domestic pharmaceutical production base and expanding the access of the population to innovative medical treatment and quality health services. This was propelled by active government policies directed towards scientific knowledge generation and technology adoption, alignment of the regulation with the best international practices, and infrastructure enhancements in all stages of the healthcare process – from prevention and treatment to rehabilitation and palliative care. Private capitals also played a role, supported by the opening of the pharma and healthcare markets to foreign investors in most countries and the liberalisation of foreign trade in raw inputs, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. From the demand side, the ageing of the population and the rapid shift towards the epidemiological profile of developed countries have resulted in an increasing demand for complex medical treatment, innovative drugs and vaccines.