LAUSANNE, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Kingdom of Morocco is the first country on the African Continent to have initiated the implementation of a single product security and tracking platform for monitoring of multiple product categories. The SICPA security platform offers an unparalleled combination of material and information based security features that are virtually impossible for counterfeiters to replicate.

On July 24, 2009, the Morocco Ministry of Economy and Finance passed a law requiring a product tracking system for all locally manufactured and imported tobacco, alcohol, soft drink, mineral water and beer products. Subsequently, the Customs Administration awarded a contract to SICPA as the sole technology provider to implement and maintain the new product security and tracking platform. SICPA will be responsible for the implementation, maintenance, repair and technical assistance for all modules of the system. More than 60 engineers and management staff will be deployed locally across the whole country to help protect genuine and legal products in Morocco.

This mandate is part of a vast program from the Moroccan Customs and Indirect Tax Administration (ADII), to undertake modern and strategic measures to reform customs and its logistics chain, providing new technologies and reinforcing partnerships between international customs, other regulatory bodies and the private sector.

SICPA has successfully deployed nation-wide product tracking and tracing systems in several countries in South America, North America, Europe and Asia.

Nazmi Karyagdi, on behalf of the Turkish Revenue Administration President states the following “Sicpa-Assan, with the machinery and equipment it has supplied, installed and started the operation of the system in a timely fashion. The Turk Trace system is an operation in compliance with the technical specifications that are stated in the contract, and provides the desired performance continuously and successfully”. Today over 7 billion consumer items ranging from tobacco, wines, spirits and beer products are protected every year in Turkey, which was the first country in the world to implement a single nation-wide system to securely monitor different excisable products.

Note to Editors:

SICPA is a private Swiss company, founded in 1927, with headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. At the core of SICPA’s security expertise are high-technology security inks which protect the majority of the world’s banknotes, identity documents as well as many other value documents from counterfeiting and fraud. The company employs over 2000 people and is established in 22 countries on 5 continents, with products sold to most nations worldwide. SICPA is a trusted advisor to governments, central banks and high-security printers.

SICPA Government Security Solutions Division protects billions of consumer products. Built on the heritage and the experience of its security ink business, SICPA Government Security Solutions Division with its Governmental Security Solutions has established itself as the provider of new security standards that integrate ink-based covert features and sophisticated track and trace technology, for product authentication and excise tax enhancement. SICPA has Government Security Solutions Division operational centres in Brazil, Malaysia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States. Today, it is the only organisation in the world to have successful secure track and trace systems installed on hundreds of tobacco and beverage production lines, run and controlled by governments; this translates into more than 60 billion individual consumer products secured every year.