3 Vietnamese enterprises participated in the competition with 6 types of rice, including: Ho Quang Tri Private Enterprise competing with ST 24 and ST 25 rice; Loc Troi Group competing with Loc Troi 28 and Nang Hoa 9 rice; Thai Binh Seed Group competing with TBR39 rice, TBR39_1 won the highest prize in the world's best rice competition in 2023. This story once again evokes the need to build a national rice brand from these useful "springboards".
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| ST 25 rice is one of 6 Vietnamese rice varieties honored as the world's best rice in 2023. |
Good news for Vietnamese rice
According to information from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development , within the framework of the 2023 Global Rice Trade Conference organized by The Rice Trader in the Philippines, Vietnamese rice was honored with the first prize of "World's Best Rice". Second and third prizes respectively went to Cambodian rice and Indian rice.
It is known that this year, there are 3 Vietnamese enterprises participating in the contest with 6 types of rice, including: Ho Quang Tri Private Enterprise competing with ST24 and ST25 rice; Loc Troi Group competing with Loc Troi 28 and Nang Hoa 9 rice; Thai Binh Seed Group competing with TBR39 and TBR39_1 rice. Therefore, the Organizing Committee honors Vietnamese rice, not a specific type of rice from any company.
The fact that Vietnamese rice was once again honored with the highest award in a delicious rice contest is a good sign for the development of the Vietnamese rice brand, helping rice export activities have more expectations for growth in the coming time. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in November, the estimated volume of exported rice reached 700,000 tons with a value of 462 million USD, bringing the total volume and value of rice exports in the first 11 months of 2023 to 7.75 million tons and 4.41 billion USD, up 16.2% in volume and 36.3% in value over the same period in 2022.
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| Loc Troi rice is being sold in Europe at high prices. |
Notably, by mid-November, rice export results had exceeded those of the whole year 2022 (the whole year 2022 reached 7.1 million tons, with a turnover of 3.45 billion USD).
Not only has the export volume been maintained at a positive level, but the export price of rice has also remained at a very high level. According to the update of the Vietnam Food Association, the price of Vietnamese rice has remained at 658 USD/ton for about a month now (on November 21, the price of Vietnamese rice increased by 10 USD, up to 663 USD/ton, but immediately after that it decreased back to 658 USD/ton and remained stable at this level).
Notably, the structure of rice varieties and quality of exported rice continue to follow the direction of the Strategy for developing the rice export market to 2030, which aims to increase the value of rice grains.
The white rice variety still accounts for the largest proportion, reaching about 55.5% of total export volume (equivalent to about 3.56 million tons); followed by fragrant rice of all kinds, accounting for about 24% of total export volume (about 1.5 million tons); glutinous rice is in third place, accounting for about 8.5% of total export volume (about 545 thousand tons); broken rice accounts for 7.6% of total export volume (about 487 thousand tons).
Being honored at the delicious rice award has helped the Vietnamese rice brand become known to many people. For ST25 rice, immediately after being honored as the world's best rice in 2019, it was continuously exported to demanding markets such as: UK, Australia, Japan... but the quantity was not enough to meet the demand.
Loc Troi Group also has Hat Ngoc Troi rice which was ranked in the Top 3 best rice in the world in 2015 and this is a useful springboard for Loc Troi rice to successfully build its brand.
Mr. Nguyen Duy Thuan, General Director of Loc Troi Group Joint Stock Company, said that Vietnamese rice has never had a brand name in the world. However, when Loc Troi Group first met with rice experts, they affirmed that Vietnamese rice is one of the best sources in the world.
“At that time, I asked myself why Vietnamese rice did not appear on the world market with the Vietnamese brand? Currently, we export 6 million tons of rice abroad each year, but why do we not have our own brand? Starting from that question, based on the foundation of experts and scientists clearly confirming that Vietnamese rice is the best in the world in terms of quality, process, pesticide residue... we confirmed that this is the necessary condition for Vietnamese rice,” said Mr. Nguyen Duy Thuan.
From that question, the sufficient condition is that Vietnamese rice must be present in supermarkets in Europe because in Europe, supermarkets account for 90% of consumption in this market. Determining the goal, Loc Troi Group has built a brand and in July 2022, together with the Vietnam Trade Office in France, introduced an import unit, building the Vietnam Rice brand for export to the market. Immediately, this type of rice has created curiosity among people around the world with the question "What is rice?".
After that, Loc Troi organized a direct introduction to French market consumers. Consumers accepted the product and responded that Vietnamese rice is very fragrant and delicious. In particular, after the price of Vietnamese rice was reduced by 200 Euro/ton thanks to the EVFTA Agreement, it became very competitive.
On September 2, 2022, Com Vietnam Rice appeared in European supermarket chains with a retail price of 4,000 Euro/ton. This is the most expensive price on the market and up to now, Loc Troi has maintained this price.
Join hands to build rice brand
Although some positive results have been achieved, according to the assessment of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the scale of domestic rice production is still small and scattered, leading to difficulties in controlling the supply for export. In addition, small-scale production causes uneven rice quality, lack of chain linkage from production, collection, processing, distribution, and consumption; lack of linkage, division of labor and organization of rice production according to regional and local advantages, leading to low specialization, and local congestion in supply and market. This is also an unpredictable factor.
Faced with the above factors, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien emphasized that mastering the process of rapid and sustainable agricultural and rural development is to ensure the quality of rice grains and product brands to maintain food security in all situations, maintain orders, and maintain export markets.
To achieve that goal, there needs to be cooperation between ministries and branches, between ministries and branches with enterprises and associations, between enterprises and associations with localities so that rice production is organized smoothly through sustainable value chains.
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| Raw material area is an important factor in successfully building a rice brand. |
On the experts' side, Professor Vo Tong Xuan stated the current situation, regarding businesses, for example with ST25 rice, Mr. Ho Quang Cua himself - the "father" of the ST25 rice variety - has not yet organized planting on a large area, with uniform raw materials, good and beautiful packaging... This is a limitation that causes the export volume of ST25 rice to be low.
Enterprises do not have raw materials or large areas, so if they want to export rice, they have to buy it mainly through traders. Even Vinafood, the strongest food company in Vietnam, does not have raw materials. It is not easy to do a large project, growing rice on 10,000 hectares of land when the fields are fragmented. It is difficult to gather farmers together because they do not want to destroy the borders of their fields.
Therefore, experts believe that it is necessary to establish a national program to build a brand for Vietnamese rice. Rice enterprises need to join together, invest together in image and marketing for the Vietnamese rice brand; invest in the quality of growing areas, build large raw material areas cultivated according to high standards, and produce in a closed system from field to table...
In addition, to build a Vietnamese rice brand, it is necessary to specify policies to support rice exporting enterprises with brands and the national certification label of Vietnamese rice (Vietnam Rice). The State needs to support the establishment of offices to introduce and promote Vietnamese rice in key markets. In addition, relevant ministries and sectors need to consider removing the procedure of registering rice export contracts, participating in centralized contract bidding and requiring factories of rice exporting enterprises to meet standards.
( According to nhandan.vn )
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