Along with the quality that has been confirmed many times as the best in the world, the brand is the "coat" that enhances the value of rice grains.
Sadness and joy of Vietnamese rice
For the past 3 consecutive years, rice export has been a hot topic… Not only because it is a key export item, closely linked to the lives of millions of Vietnamese farmers, but also because of the extremely strong fluctuation in the export price of this item.
Specifically, since September 2022, India has issued a ban on the export of 100% broken rice and then applied export restrictions on all other types of rice in 2023 after low rainfall raised concerns about production. Since then, Vietnam's rice exports have continuously increased in price and peaked in 2024. The average export price of rice in 2024 has reached 627 USD/ton.
However, since India gradually eased its rice export ban from late 2024, Vietnam's rice export prices have continuously decreased. Recently, there was a time when rice prices fell below the $400/ton mark, down nearly half compared to the peak in 2024. In early 2025, the supply to the world rice market increased to a record, reaching 532.7 million tons (according to the US Department of Agriculture, February 2025), continuing to put strong pressure on other exporters such as Vietnam and Thailand, especially in the low-quality segment.
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| Building a brand helps Loc Troi rice maintain a very high price (Photo: Loc Troi Group) |
Although we know that price fluctuations are a very normal story of the market, the rise and fall of this item is a story that has been predicted, and continues to raise stories worth pondering.
Remember, in 2023, when India and some countries increased the ban on rice exports, at the Conference on implementing rice export management in 2023, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien was very concerned about the current loose linkage between farmers and rice exporting enterprises. The Minister emphasized that, in the context of many fluctuations in the rice market when many markets issued orders to restrict rice exports, enterprises must establish and strengthen a close and effective cooperation mechanism between production forces (growing areas, farmers) and rice exporting enterprises, between rice exporting enterprises with each other to avoid the situation of breaking contracts, competing to buy, compete to sell, compete for the market, causing instability in the rice market.
At the meeting on the establishment of the Vietnam Rice Export Council in August 2024, when Vietnam's rice export prices were very high, the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade continued to worry about another issue, which is the story of the brand of exported rice. Due to the lack of a brand, although exporting a large amount of rice at a high price, Vietnamese rice still faces many risks, especially the risk of not being able to maintain a stable price.
Positioning the value of Vietnamese rice through brands
As for the brand story, this is not a new story at all. To successfully build a rice brand, the necessary condition is quality. So what is the current quality of Vietnamese rice?
According to the latest report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, currently, the structure of Vietnam's rice exports is up to 80% high-quality rice. Specifically, white rice (about 71%, average price 523 - 540 USD/ton) is mainly exported to the Philippines, Indonesia, and Africa; fragrant rice such as Jasmine, Dai Thom, ST24, ST25 (19%, price 640-700 USD/ton), is mainly exported to the EU, the United States, China, and Japan. Glutinous rice (accounting for 6%) is exported to China, the Philippines, and some other Southeast Asian countries. Japonica rice and other specialty rice (4%) are mainly consumed in Japan, Korea and other high-end markets...
Along with high quality rice, Vietnamese rice has been recognized many times as the best rice in the world with ST 25. Vietnamese rice has entered Europe with the brand name Com Vietnam Rice with a selling price of up to 4,000 Euro/ton. Vietnamese rice with the brand name ST25 AAN, Japonica-AAN of Tan Long Group has entered the supermarket system of Japan with a selling price that is not cheap.
Thus, the necessary conditions, Vietnamese rice completely meets...
So what are the sufficient conditions? Vietnam has the solutions to promote and trade from the authorities.
It can be seen that rice is one of the key products for which the Ministry of Industry and Trade has implemented trade promotion solutions. Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Sinh Nhat Tan affirmed that, in its role as state manager, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is always committed to promoting rice export promotion solutions and considers rice a key product in implementing export promotion activities.
For example, at the Vietnamese Goods Fair organized annually by Vietnamese trade offices abroad, rice is always the main product. The image of Vietnamese rice is not only introduced in the form of small, pure white bags of rice with the Vietnamese brand, but is also cleverly introduced through Vietnamese dishes such as sticky rice, banh chung, vermicelli, pho, etc. Just like that, the image of Vietnamese rice grains enters the minds of consumers in the host country in a very natural way.
The quality is there, national trade promotion activities have been implemented, so what is missing from Vietnamese rice? Perhaps what is missing is the motivation from businesses. The motivation to build a brand by quality, by value, by the beautiful stories behind it…
Not to mention, there is still a sad truth that there are still some businesses competing to buy and sell, causing the already low rice price to be pushed down even lower. The ones who suffer are not only businesses, but also farmers who work hard to produce rice...
Looking at the lessons from Loc Troi, Tan Long…, we can see that building a rice brand is a long story and certainly costs a lot of money. However, a brand is an intangible value that makes consumers willing to pay a high price for the product. A brand is also an intangible value to affirm the position of the product with the national image in the market. A brand is also what ensures that rice grains maintain their value in the market, avoiding some of the “price storms”.
At the Conference on rice production, market and drought and salinity prevention in the Mekong Delta held on March 7, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha once again assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to coordinate with the Ministry of Science and Technology to urgently develop a strong national rice brand development strategy, register copyrights and geographical indications, to serve trade promotion and open new markets. It can be seen that the story of rice brand is more urgent than ever. This is the "new coat" of rice, so that Vietnamese rice can return to its true value on the world rice map.
| Rice exports in the first two months of 2025 are estimated at 1.1 million tons (up 5.9%), with a value of 613 million USD (down 13%). The average export price of rice is estimated at 553 USD/ton (down 18% over the same period). |
Source: https://congthuong.vn/khoac-ao-moi-cho-hat-gao-viet-377661.html
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