Although Vietnam is a leading rice exporter in the world, its rice remains low in value and quality and still lacks trademarks. As the country is preparing to join the WTO, its rice production and trading sector is being confronted with a lot of difficulties.

The domestic market – great potentia

Nowadays, Vietnamese consumers pay much attention to the quality of rice. Traders boast of a potential rice market with different kinds of high-quality rice.

Coop Mart Can Tho in the Mekong Delta province of Can Tho said during the past two years, its annual revenue from rice sales has increased by 30 percent. Currently, it sells about three tonnes of rice per month.

The main store of the Co Do (Red Flag) Farm in Can Tho city attracts a large number of customers thanks to its different kinds of high-quality rice and stable prices. It now sells between 17-18 tonnes per month.

According to experts, currently Vietnam has approximately 84 million people and if a person consumes 10kg of high-quality rice/year, the total amount of rice consumed will reach 840,000 tonnes/year or an equivalent to 1.5 million tonnes of rice grains. This is a great demand that the country is not yet able to meet.

Trademark still underestimate

Many consumers feel a bit puzzled about rice to buy as rice stores offer different kinds believed to be imported from the US, Thailand and Taiwan.

“Most of these kinds of rice are grown in Vietnam and named by traders with famous brands,” said Nguyen Thi Phung, a rice trader at Cai Khe Trade Centre in Can Tho city. “Currently, the quality, variety and origin of rice sold on the domestic market are unclear. Despite my experience, I sometimes buy low-quality rice at high prices.”

Le Viet Hai, director of the Mekong Joint Stock Company, shared Ms Phung’s view. He said almost all kinds of fragrance rice available in the Mekong River Delta are locally produced from Jasmine and VD20 varieties. He added that rice imported from Thailand and other countries cannot be sold far and wide on the domestic market because they are offered at high prices.

Ngo Ngoc Dung, director of the Saigon Can Tho Trade Co. Ltd, said Vietnamese rice still dominates the domestic market due to its low price. Co.op Mart Can Tho, for instance, only sells Vietnamese rice supplied by domestic producers at a price of between VND7,000-10,000 per kg.

This fact shows that Vietnamese rice lacks a trademark. Though Vietnam has different kinds of high-quality rice such as Nang Thom in Long An province and Nang Nhen in An Giang province, customers still fail to get such special rice as it is often mixed with other kinds of rice.

Recently, some businesses have built rice trademarks. However, these trademarks are weak and unprofessional. Some well-known trademarks bear foreign names such as US fragrant rice, Thai fragrant rice or Taiwan fragrant rice.

Challenges on the threshold of integration

Economic experts have warned Vietnamese businesses of having to pay a high price if they continue to borrow foreign names for Vietnamese rice.

Pham Hoang Kiet, a rice seller in Can Tho city said it is hard for him to sell Vietnamese rice under a Vietnamese trademark because customers get used to buying rice with foreign trademarks. To sell Vietnamese rice, Mr Kiet said he has to explain to customers and write two names at the same time.

The crux of the matter is to how to re-arrange production. Small-scale production planning, purchasing through many intermediators and lack of packing material and trademark will cause a lot of difficulties in improving the quality of Vietnamese rice as well as building its own trademarks.

The State and relevant agencies should join hands in checking the quality and effectiveness of imported rice strains and domestically identifying them with specific names.

Source: VOV