VietNamNet Bridge - Experts doubt that Vietnam can create a national rice brand, saying that this would be impossible when more than 90 percent of rice total output is sold to small merchants before exported.


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The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) aims to have 20 percent of Vietnam’s total rice exports by 2020 to bear the Vietnamese brand.

This could be a surprise to many people that Vietnam does not have a national rice brand of its own, even though it is well-known in the world as the third largest rice exporter. 

After 30 years of doi moi (renovation), Vietnam has become a large rice exporter, exporting 6-8 million tons of rice a year.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam said that it was urgently necessary to build up a nation’s rice brand. 

However, he said that Vietnam had been slow in doing this. As a result, Vietnam’s rice products bear other brands in the world market. Most rice exporters, which sell rice to the EU or Africa, have to go through Thailand and Cambodia.

He also said that with the current small production scale and uneven quality of products, it would be very difficult to build up the national brand.

However, he said: “We must not let foreign businesses buy Vietnam’s rice to export to other countries under their brand names.”

“It is necessary to settle the problem. The State will have to have reasonable policies to help build the nation’s rice brand. The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) will help popularize the brand and look for export markets. However, it is the enterprises which will decide if the building of a national brand can succeed,” he said.

“Vietnamese enterprises which want to have high-quality rice for export will have to invest to develop rice material growing areas,” he added.

VFA’s secretary general Huynh Minh Hue noted that Vietnamese farmers mostly grow IR50404 high-yield rice variety to satisfy 50 percent of the demand for exporting to markets which order low-quality rice such as China or Africa. 

However, in the new development stage, especially when Vietnam wants to build a nation’s brand, it is necessary to reconsider new rice varieties.

“It would be better to reorganize the production by developing rice varieties which can bring higher value and ensure food safety for export to choosier markets,” he said.

Vietnamese farmers need to grow purebred certified varieties to ensure identical rice quality.

At present, more than 90 percent of rice output is sold by farmers to small merchants, who, in order to optimize profits, mix rice of different kinds before selling to rice exporters.

NLD