Spain conjures up images of sun, sea, and good wine. The picture of a traditional picker jotting down information about his harvest using pen and paper are about to become a thing of the past for wine growers in the northern Spanish region of La Rioja. Smart card maker Giesecke & Devrient (G&D), in conjunction with Spanish IT service provider Acotec, has come up with a smart card-based solution that collects and evaluates information on wine growers and their crops electronically using special software. The new system not only simplifies data acquisition, but also provides harvest data updated on a daily basis.

The Spanish province of La Rioja is one of Europe’s leading wine growing regions. The area used for cultivation, covering approximately 57,000 hectares (140,790 acres) lies on the Ebro River in northern Spain. Until now, winery owners have kept their records manually, a time-consuming and error-prone way of doing things. Evaluating the data took a long time, often up to two months after the grapes had been harvested.

Now, the introduction of an electronic harvest system will generate enormous benefits. The regulatory authorities will be able to use the system to control the harvest as well as monitor the tightly limited quotas. The system also performs a host of other services, such as informing wine presses on a daily basis about the progress of the harvest and planned deliveries. Using special readers, inspectors also receive daily reports on closed vineyards and new wine presses. 
 
Easy-to-use dual interface cards
The electronic wine harvest system works using G&D Sm@rtCaféExpert smart cards powered by the Java Card technology with parallel support of contact and contactless interfaces. The interface is capable of transferring data between the card and reader terminal either by means of the chip’s contacts or over the air. Contactless transmission is used wherever speed is essential. The grower simply holds his card up to the contactless reader carried by the inspector, thereby initiating a new transaction. Once the harvest is complete, the inspector enters all the data concerning it, such as weight, type of grape, alcohol content, and the wine press that will receive the fruit, directly into the terminal. The terminal’s software automatically calculates the current quota level and updates the remaining harvest allowance on the card issued to the wine grower. Once the predefined quota has been met, the card refuses to authorize any further transactions.

The card’s contact-based interface is used for purposes of personalization. The overseer can transfer desired information about the respective grower and his designated harvest profile to the card by inserting it into the terminal just prior to the card’s initial use.

“The electronic system of grape harvesting has made things considerably more efficient. The system has been accepted so quickly by the growers thanks to the easy-to-use smart cards they have been issued. The background system provides us with up-to-the-minute information on the amounts harvested, enabling us to even better ensure the top quality of our Rioja wine,” says Domingo Rodrigo, Technical Director of the Rioja Vine Regulation Committee.

About Giesecke & Devrient:       
Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) is a technology leader in the field of smart cards, providing smart card based solutions for telecommunications, electronic payment, health care, ID, transportation, and IT security (PKI). G&D is also a leading producer of banknotes and security documents and is dominant in the field of currency automation. Based in Munich, Germany, the G&D group has subsidiaries and joint ventures around the world. In fiscal 2005, the Group employed some 7,500 people and generated revenue of €1.24 billion. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.gi-de.com.

Keywords : smart card, Giesecke & Devrient, Acotec

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