During the process of exporting Vietnamese rice, is there any story that haunts you, or makes you more excited, more determined or more confident about your goal?
There are many memorable stories, but the one that really leaves an impression, as you said, is a memory with a Korean partner. In 2017, Tan Long Group won a bid to export 30,000 tons of rice to Korea, and by 2018, the number had nearly doubled to 50,000 tons. Once, during the implementation of the bid, a leading expert in Korea came to Vietnam to inspect Tan Long's shipments. After completing all the procedures, they also shared honestly: "In the past, we were proud that Korea produced very good rice and our rice grains were very beautiful. However, today, when inspecting batches of tens of thousands of tons of Vietnamese rice, we have to admit that Vietnamese rice is beautiful, shiny, of good quality and uniform. More importantly, you do everything very simply on a very large scale. Therefore, from today, we have to change the way we look at Vietnamese rice."
We often think that our rice is only exported raw because of its inferior quality, appearance, uniformity... but as an agricultural country with a culture of hundreds of years of rice cultivation, Vietnam is completely capable of creating delicious rice varieties, building a brand for Vietnamese rice to conquer world consumers. Why not?
As you said, we have many delicious and quality agricultural products, but brand building is still a weakness of Vietnamese goods in general and Vietnamese agricultural products in particular when going out into the world. Up to this point, we have had hundreds of export items in all fields and industries, but "legitimate" products, meaning not "borrowed names", can probably be counted on the fingers. How do you explain this?
We say the brand story sounds far away but in fact, the brand of a business is the trust of consumers. And to gain the trust of consumers, it must originate from quality value. With A An, my point of view is that before thinking about reaching out to the world, we must build a foundation in the domestic market. We must build from the fields, that is, from the origin of the rice grains. Where is the rice grown, what kind, who grows it, how is it grown, how is it harvested, dried, and preserved so that when it reaches consumers, they will cook the most delicious and safest rice grains. The rice grains are not affected by any chemicals or overdose of pesticides that make consumers worry.
People think it's simple, rice is put in a bag, packaged and sold to have a name and reputation, but it's not. It's difficult! Extremely difficult. Rice grains have physical and chemical properties depending on time and weather, so we have to understand it to be able to control it. For example, newly harvested rice within 3 months still retains its quality in terms of flour, nutrients, and is fragrant and delicious when cooked. However, after 4-5 months, the same rice grains and the same rice plant will have different quality and flavor. So consumers are very "satisfied" when eating rice that is still good, but after only 1-2 months, the same bag of rice will no longer taste good. At that time, they will think that we are counterfeiting and deceiving. And explaining this to people is very difficult. They actually don't care about the reason. They only know that for spending this amount of money, they must receive an item with that quality. Therefore, the business's job is to ensure that the quality of rice grains is stable. From packaging, clean room preservation to almost sterilization so that no small microorganism can "get lost" in the rice bag... It was a very elaborate journey. We had to struggle for several years to control the uniformity of the rice grains, from which the name A An was formed as it is today, not "giving birth" to a name so that consumers would know what to call it. Controlling the quality of each grain of A An rice from its launch in July 2019 until today is the effort and sweat of many people.
That said, the brand story is not something that happens overnight. It is a story that spreads, it takes time for people to know about the product, understand it, try it and believe it. In short, the most important thing is still quality. We cannot talk about the brand story without quality. No matter how much marketing and "promotion" the name is, if the product quality is not guaranteed, it cannot become a brand.
It's already difficult in the country, so bringing A An rice to shelves in Japan must be even more difficult?
In fact, Vietnamese consumers are very picky and not easy to conquer. So if we cannot ensure the quality of the rice grains and build the A An brand in the domestic market, we cannot export because Japan checks nearly 600 chemicals in rice grains. If just one criterion does not meet the safety requirements, we will be "out" immediately, and the whole batch will be discarded. Even goods arriving at the port must be turned back.
Fortunately for Tan Long, we have created a difference in the process, a difference in the quality of rice grains so that consumers can be completely assured. And from within the country, we have the foundation to confidently export to Japan as well as many other countries.
Vietnam's rice export price has now surpassed Thailand's, reaching the highest level in Asia. Meanwhile, the "difficult" countries that we aim to export branded rice to all have very strong policies to protect domestic agriculture. Penetrating is difficult, selling a lot of products is even more difficult. Why doesn't Tan Long choose to export raw rice, which is both profitable and less difficult, sir?
It is true that Vietnamese rice is facing great difficulties when the demanding markets that we want to conquer all have very strong policies to protect domestic agriculture. Not to mention, currently, most of the promotion and brand promotion activities are mainly carried out by enterprises themselves. Due to limited funds, enterprises do not have enough capacity to carry out strong international marketing programs, so they also have disadvantages in competing with countries exporting the same products. But if we continue to pursue the story of exporting raw materials like in the past years, the problem is too simple. From the beginning, Tan Long did not set the goal of bringing A An abroad to make a profit. We determined that we were in the stage of slow and steady progress to affirm the quality and affirm the Vietnamese brand in the international market before thinking about other stories.
Rice goes out into the world, waiting for "slow and steady rain to soak in", domestically the "vegetarian pork" brand was launched right at the most difficult economic time. Why didn't you wait for a more favorable time to launch instead of making things difficult for yourself like this?
If it's favorable, to be honest, I've never seen favorable conditions in business. There's no such thing as this, there's another thing. If it's not objective, it's subjective. For the livestock industry, the difficulties started at the end of 2022. Up to now, the price of live pigs has dropped sharply. In addition to the cyclical nature of the livestock industry, there is now an additional factor: the post-Covid-19 economic crisis, which has reduced total demand and made consumers more frugal. In addition, the African swine fever epidemic swept through at the end of 2022, forcing herds of pigs that were not yet old enough to be sold to "run away from the epidemic". The massive supply pushed into the market during a period of time caused prices to drop sharply. It cannot be denied that it is a disadvantage, but that is the story of the market. The story of investment is different. Investment does not depend on the price of live pigs today. If I determine that by 2030 I must have this total, I must do it to achieve it. If from now until then, if I encounter difficulties or problems, then... let it be. You can't let that affect your strategy. In business, strategic vision and goals are consistent. Once you've positioned yourself to be in that position at that time, you must go, do, and achieve it by all means.
Where is Tan Long in 2030, sir?
Exactly "mission". The mission I set for Tan Long is that by 2030, there must be 1 million tons of retail rice in the domestic market, although now there are only about 50,000 tons and 6 million vegetarian pigs for sale, it must definitely be in the top 2. Of course, this target is high, even very high if looking at the current numbers. But if you only look at the market and worry, get down, and demand to reduce the target, it cannot be "big". You have to work hard, find every way to achieve that target, not change the target. Another factor that makes me confident is the trust that consumers place in Tan Long.
Signing Ceremony with IFC
Signing ceremony of strategic cooperation agreement with FPT Corporation
There are still many different opinions on which products and services to choose to build a national brand. Choosing an industry with advantages or choosing a trend... what is your opinion on this issue?
First, let's ask the question, "In 50 years, what will Vietnam compete with the world with? To compete internationally, what will be Vietnam's advantage? I think, only agriculture and tourism. If we do well in these two areas, Vietnam's economy will develop very strongly.
But it must be said frankly that both Vietnam's agriculture and tourism are developing fragmentedly, on a small scale and haphazardly. There are only a few enterprises that are professional but not strong enough to become a national brand. There should be many enterprises like that. Agriculture alone must follow the direction of high-tech agriculture, productive agriculture, clean agriculture, and chain linkage in which enterprises are the locomotives, pioneers, not only places with potential but also places to consume products for farmers. If farmers are left to grow spontaneously, whatever they want to grow as they do now, no one can regulate the market, leading to the story of good harvests and low prices happening regularly. There must be chain linkage in which enterprises, cooperatives; small-scale regional linkages become large model fields. It is necessary to apply many technologies, machinery and equipment, and modernize agriculture and rural areas. Only then will the cost per area of land be cheaper and output increase, and then we can talk about building a national brand to compete in the world arena.
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