In March, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) hosted an eight-member delegation from Malawi’s tax authority, for a five- day tax stamp benchmarking visit.

At the recent High Security Printing™ EMEA conference in Basel, Switzerland, Dr Alexander Brannan from the University of Manchester, and Gary Spinks of Security Fibres UK, presented advances in colour-changing smart materials designed for rapid authentication. This technology addresses key issues in anticounterfeiting by integrating academic research with industrial application.

Two cannabis businesses in the Canadian province of Alberta – Token Naturals and Plantlife Cannabis – together with US technology company Metrc, are launching a pilot project in Alberta to improve the transparency and safety of cannabis products.

Across the tax stamp and traceability sector, several concurrent technologies are forcing change: digitisation, the impact of AI, and the prospect of quantum computing. There is no doubt that, individually, these technologies offer convenience and efficiency, but should we be concerned about the interplay between them and whether they could lead to a new set of threats?

If you only read media reports, it would be easy to assume that the most significant advances in identity document security stem from digital innovation, with biometric verification, blockchain-based identity management, and digital certificates dominating discussions.

India is the largest market in the world for liquor tax stamps, given that 27 states consume 30-35 billion tax stamps annually. While tax stamps at a global level are mainly used on tobacco products as part of a federal scheme, the situation is different in India, where almost all stamps in circulation are used on alcoholic beverages at the individual state level – and no stamps are used at all on tobacco products.

Florida-based Metrc has launched Retail ID™, a serialised QR code solution for enhancing cannabis supply chain transparency at retail level. Rather than replacing Metrc’s existing RFID tag system on cannabis plants and bulk packaging, the code is intended to complement it.

The Korea Minting, Security Printing and ID Card Operating Corp (KOMSCO) has developed a tax stamp in collaboration with VOICEYE, a 2D high-density barcode solution specialist, with a focus on critical global markets like tobacco, alcohol, and pharmaceuticals.

The Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) has completed a two-year pilot study aimed at ensuring supply chain integrity and fuel authenticity for drop-in green fuels (ie. renewable fuels made from biomass sources that can be blended with petroleum products).

Authentix has announced an exclusive partnership with ARMOR-IIMAK, a global player in the thermal transfer ribbon printing industry, to provide brand owners and their authorised contract manufacturers with a new covert security ink available in thermal transfer ribbon format.