Vietnam doesn’t have good trademarks for its rice

Though Vietnam is the second-biggest rice exporter in the world, it has not been successful in building up trademarks for its rice.

Many kinds of Vietnamese rice are being sold on the home market under foreign trademarks.

Prof Dr Vo Tong Xuan, Rector of An Giang University, has headed a delegation of six Vietnamese scientists that have gone to Sierra Leone to assist the country’s farmers in growing rice. This is also the first step Vietnam has made in seeking new land for Vietnamese paddies.

In 2006, OM2417 and Jasmine varieties brought the high yield of 3.5-4.9mil tonnes per hectare. In the future, Vietnam will supply key rice varieties to the country. According to Mr Xuan, it is expected that by 2008, Vietnam will send 20 its best farmers to Sierra Leone.

Mr Xuan said that it was necessary to think of expanding export markets, but Vietnamese farmers should not forget the domestic market with more than 80mil people. One of the urgent tasks is to heighten the quality of rice, and help farmers in distribution.

Mr Xuan was the senior advisor to Kim Ke rice trademark, and the technical advisor for the Kim Ke collective farm, and now is the honourary shareholder of Minh Cat Tan Company Ltd.

He agreed to cooperate with Kim Ke because he is not satisfied with the fact that Vietnam continues exporting raw rice, though the country is the second-biggest rice exporter in the world. In fact, no enterprise in Vietnam pays appropriate attention to building up trademarks for Vietnamese rice.

With Mr Xuan’s support, in the last three years, Minh Cat Tan and its rice with Kim Ke trademark has become well known on the domestic market. Kim Ke rice can meet the ISO 9001: 2000 on the production process and quality. Kim Ke is planning to make investment in a chain of collective farms which grow high-quality rice under GAP standards.

In early August 2007, Minh Cat Tan officially opened the first of its chain of restaurants in HCM City specialising in broken rice and meals made from special rice.

The plan by Kim Ke would certainly make scientists and localities’ readers think about how to build up trademarks for Vietnamese rice. In fact, many kinds of Vietnamese rice are being sold on the home market under foreign trademarks, because domestic trademarks do not attract consumers.

Phu Tan sticky rice, for example, a speciality of the western area of the southern region, is also being sold under a foreign name.

Vietnam has been trying to export several kinds of scented rice. However, as these kinds of rice have not been recognised as meeting international standards, and do not have their own trademarks, the selling prices are not higher than those of other rice varieties.

The Can Tho-based Mekong Company can make 3,000 tonnes of scented rice every year. However, as Le Viet Hai, Director of Mekong, said, the export price of this specialty is just VND50/kg higher than normal varieties.

In fact, many enterprises have been trying to make heavy investment in building trademarks for their products. Song Hau Food Company, Song Hau Collective Farm, Co Do Farm and Mekong Company have made heavy investment in growing high-quality rice: they provide capital to farmers and are responsible for consumption.

Nevertheless, the investment sums still cannot help expand the market, they just can help ‘polish the image’ of companies. Most enterprises have been focusing on expanding export markets, while ignoring the home market.

“Thai, US and Taiwanese rice now can be seen everywhere in the Mekong River Delta, and this should be seen as a big challenge,” Mr Xuan said. Enterprises and farmers want to establish close cooperation to build up trademarks and improve rice quality. However, big barriers still exist as farmers and enterprises still do not have confidence in each other.

The rice price on the domestic market is hovering around VND3mil/tonne, or $188. In the world’s market, the price of Vietnamese rice has increased by $35-42/tonne, the highest peak so far.

Source: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/biz/2007/09/738333/