From WIRE REPORTS
On the morning of July 16, at a rice shop on Cach Mang Thang Tam Road, District 10 in Sai Gon, Ms. Nhung bought 22 pounds of Thai scented rice for about $7 – or 32 cents per pound. Nhung was also offered some sugar and a bag of spice powder and several small things for free.
Nhung said her family had used Thai rice for many years. Previously, when the family’s income was low, they used ordinary rice varieties, priced lower.
At the Saigon rice shop on Bui Dinh Tuy Road, Binh Thanh District, rice with foreign names like Thai fragrant rice, American scented rice, Taiwanese rice, Japanese rice were displayed in the two first rows.
Mr. Tu, the shop owner, said all the rice varieties in the shop were imported from a rice milling company in Tien Giang province, which were produced by farmers in the Mekong Delta.
“Rice traders bought rice from farmers, then sold to milling companies. These companies processed rice and sold to rice distributors like us. These varieties of rice are not imported at all,” Tu said.
As the leading rice exporter in the world, with more than 7 million tons per year, Viet Nam has not had any famous rice brands — even in the local market.
Dr. Mai Thanh Phung, from the Sai Gon City National Agricultural Extension Center, said that of rice sold at private shops, even at supermarkets, Vietnamese rice is not packed with official brands or stamps.
Phung added that Viet Nam has a lot of rice varieties but it lacks the rice brands of reputation, with stable quality that attracts consumers.
Nguyen Tho Tri, the deputy general director of the Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood II), said that besides the lack of good varieties of rice, the current rice varieties of Viet Nam are quickly degrading so it is impossible to build strong brands.
“In many cases, international customers praised the quality of a rice variety of Viet Nam but when they offered to buy more, that rice variety was no longer in use. For example, the variety of aromatic rice ST was launched just a few years ago, but now farmers are planting the ST 20 variety. Previously, Vietnam had IR 84 rice variety with good quality, which was favored by foreign customers but this variety has no longer used,” said Tri.
The familiar rice brands like nang thom, cho dao, tai nguyen, nang huong are produced in small quantity. Moreover, these specialty rice products are usually mixed with ordinary rice so their quality is reduced.
