Trends in laser marking technology for agricultural products in Africa

Product marking is very important as it provides information about the product through the agricultural value chain without the information being missing or tampered with. Therefore, it is necessary to use technologies that would permanently mark agricultural products, and one such technology is laser marking. This technology is being explored and used in other parts of the world, such as Europe, Australia, and the United States, intensively in the agriculture sector. However, in Africa, it has been used in only a few countries such as South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria. There is a need to encourage, educate, and sensitize people on the beneficial effects of its use, such as high precision of work, permanent marking, high resistance to external effects like heat and abrasion, low power consumption, and being environmentally friendly. Therefore, this paper seeks to review the trends of laser marking of agricultural products in Africa and also provide recommendations on its use, especially in Ghana.