Golden opportunity for Vietnamese rice brand

Vietnam’s rice prices are currently among the highest in the world and continue to rise sharply. This is considered a golden opportunity for the Vietnamese rice industry and Vietnam needs to seize this opportunity to promote the building of a national rice brand.

Vietnamese rice is increasingly improving its reputation and creating a prestigious brand in the world. In the photo: rice harvest season in Bac Lieu province - Photo: CHI QUOC

In early July 2023, the Prime Minister signed a telegram to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and localities to request the strengthening of tasks and solutions to promote rice production and export. One of the tasks is to build a brand for Vietnamese rice products through the national trade promotion program, the national brand program and related programs and projects of ministries, branches and localities.

Farmers are still unfamiliar with the brand.

Most localities with large rice production areas in the Mekong Delta have long paid attention to supporting trademark registration and building rice brands. However, the number of registered trademarks is still quite modest compared to nearly 1.5 million hectares of rice in this largest delta region in Vietnam. According to statistics from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Long An province, to date, this agency has supported 20 trademarks and 16 collective trademarks of Long An rice to register for protection at the Intellectual Property Office. This is one of the provinces with a large number of rice trademarks in the South. Among them, there are many brands registered by state-owned units such as Nang Thom Cho Dao Rice (My Le Commune Agricultural Service Cooperative, Can Duoc District), Nep Chum 46 (Long An Agricultural Extension Center), Vinh Thuan Organic Rice (Vinh Thuan Agricultural Cooperative, Vinh Hung District), Go Gon Agricultural Cooperative Sticky Rice (Tan Hung District)... There are some brands that have been registered by private companies, appearing on the market very early such as Tan Dong Tien (Tan Dong Tien Joint Stock Company) since 2004, MT (Minh Tam Private Enterprise) since 2005, Cong Thanh - Sau Cuong (Cong Thanh II Private Enterprise) since 2006... Meanwhile, in many localities, rice trademark registration is still quite modest. The Department of Science and Technology of Soc Trang province said that in the past, it only received applications for registration of trademarks and rice brands from two collectives (one for ST rice and one for resource rice) and trademarks from some individuals. In some localities with small rice areas such as Ben Tre, since March 2017, Thanh Phu Rice - Shrimp Cooperative has pioneered in registering the local clean rice brand.

Complex trademark registration

As the locality with the most developed rice brands in the Mekong Delta, Long An has had policies to support the establishment and protection of intellectual property rights, and the registration process and documents have been issued in detail to serve individuals and groups in need of easy implementation. However, the biggest difficulty is that many organizations and individuals do not clearly understand what a trademark or logo is, and do not distinguish clearly between a company name and a trademark. "This leads to the design of labels and logos that are not suitable for the product or overlap with trademarks that have been registered for protection. Some trademarks are even registered without prior search, and overlap with previously registered trademarks, so they are both time-consuming and rejected," said a leader of the Department of Science and Technology of Long An province. Mr. Duong Vinh Hao - Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology of Soc Trang province - also admitted that trademark registration in the past was quite complicated and the problem was not local. "The decision to grant a rice trademark or brand certificate is under the authority of the Intellectual Property Office. Perhaps due to the large number of applications submitted, it takes time to review, so it is slow," said Mr. Hao. Talking about the registration of a rice trademark, engineer Ho Quang Cua said that after ST25 rice became the "king" in 2019, his family started the procedure to register a trademark for "their child". However, it took nearly two years, submitting the application in May 2021 but it was not until March 2023 that the Intellectual Property Office issued a certificate of registration of the trademark Mr. Cua's Rice to Ho Quang Tri Private Enterprise (owned by Mr. Cua's son). "Not only was it complicated, prolonged, the cost of hiring lawyers and so on... totaled over 1 billion VND to be granted a trademark," Mr. Cua revealed.

Rice brand not protected

Mr. Tran Tan Phuong - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Soc Trang province - said that according to regulations, all organizations and individuals who want to register a trademark for their rice products must submit a dossier to the Department of Science and Technology. After being granted a trademark registration by the competent authority, the rice product is allowed to be sold on the market, and anyone who violates the regulations will be handled according to regulations. However, in reality, this is not the case. According to Mr. Phuong, in the past, many organizations and individuals have "stirred up", imitated, and counterfeited the trademark and brand of rice, especially ST fragrant rice. As one of the three authors of the ST25 fragrant rice variety, Mr. Phuong expressed his indignation when many places, many organizations and individuals violated the trademark and brand of ST25 fragrant rice but have not been properly handled. "This causes great damage to honest traders. To protect the rice brand and raise the level of Vietnamese rice , the authorities need to thoroughly handle the situation of commercial fraud, counterfeiting and forgery of rice brands," Mr. Phuong suggested. A business that has registered a rice brand in the Mekong Delta said that although there are many documents regulating the process and chemical residues in rice, there are no sanctions strong enough to deter, nor are there communication programs for farmers to comply with the rice growing process, nor are there quality announcements for the distribution system to choose products. "Therefore, consumers have to accept the lack of choice in the process of buying rice. This greatly affects farmers and traders who want to grow high-quality rice that meets food hygiene and safety standards," he said indignantly.

Not exploiting the brand effectively

Mr. Nguyen Minh Hai - Director of the Department of Science and Technology of Long An province - assessed that although there are many trademarks, many organizations and individuals have not managed and exploited the value of intellectual property rights and have relied on intellectual property to develop the market, find partners, as well as plan production, business and product consumption. In addition, there are many limitations in the application of information technology in trade promotion activities, promoting the development of foreign trade and domestic trade.

Professor Vo Tong Xuan: Should choose ST25 variety to build a national rice brand Over the years, Vietnam has also thought about building a national rice brand and spent a lot of money on this but has not been successful. With ST25 rice winning the "World's Best Rice" award for the second time, in my opinion, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should take this opportunity to choose the famous ST25 rice variety to build a national rice brand for Vietnam, similar to Thailand's successful method of choosing hom mali rice. In addition, with the Government having just approved the project of 1 million hectares of high-quality rice, reducing emissions, the Ministry should also soon recognize ST25 as a national variety and put it into production to increase the efficiency of the project.

Many localities actively build rice brands

Consumers have more and more choices from Vietnamese rice brands on the shelves - Photo: QUANG DINH

One of the long-standing famous brands in the Mekong Delta is Nang Thom Cho Dao, a seasonal rice growing area in Can Duoc district (Long An). This is also one of the brands that has received early attention, successfully registered since 2003. By 2014, the United States Patent and Trademark Office had granted a certificate of exclusive protection for the brand. In 2016, a project with a total budget of more than 5 billion VND was carried out to find and restore the quality rice gene source that once helped Nang Thom Cho Dao rice reach far and wide. "Up to now, the procedures for geographical indication of Cho Dao have been completed and the dossier for this geographical indication is being assessed by the Department of Intellectual Property, considering granting a certificate of protection," said Mr. Nguyen Chi Thien, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Mr. Huynh Quang Duc - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ben Tre province - added that although rice is not a strong crop, the locality always encourages and supports individuals and cooperatives to build their own to consume products. A typical example is Thanh Phu Rice - Shrimp Cooperative (Thanh Phu district), from a few dozen initial members, it has now mobilized more than 100 members to participate, and the area of ​​clean rice cultivation has also been expanded. Mr. Ho Van Cuong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Thanh Phu Rice - Shrimp Cooperative, said that "Thanh Phu Clean Rice" is a product, the quintessence of Thanh Phu land, so building a brand must first come from building and preserving product quality. Rice grains must first be cultivated using safe, organic methods. To date, "Thanh Phu Clean Rice" has been granted a collective trademark certificate for Thanh Phu clean rice by the Intellectual Property Office in 2016 and by 2020, the FAO has certified the product as meeting organic standards. Thanks to that, the "Thanh Phu Clean Rice" brand has many opportunities to access many large domestic and foreign markets, with good and stable prices. Mr. Vo Van Men - Head of the Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection of Tien Giang - said that this locality is actively building the "Go Cong Rice" brand which has been certified by the Department of Intellectual Property, unifying the geographical scope of ownership of the "Go Cong Rice" brand including the districts of Go Cong Tay, Go Cong Dong, Tan Phu Dong and Go Cong town. Meanwhile, according to Mr. Truong Kien Tho - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of An Giang province, the People's Committee of An Giang province has issued a rice processing program to serve the project "Building and developing the An Giang rice brand to 2025 and vision to 2030" with the goal of striving to achieve by 2025, the export of An Giang branded rice will account for about 10% of the total rice export volume of the province; Export volume reaches 45,000 - 50,000 tons. In particular, strive to make An Giang rice brand become a national rice brand. "In the first phase of the project, select typical varieties to build the brand through competitions and varieties researched and developed in the area. It is possible to focus on researching, selecting and developing varieties to serve the project such as: LT18, LT28, OM18..., at the same time calling on many businesses to participate in building the rice brand", Mr. Tho informed.

Tuoitre.vn