Many housewives in HCM City prefer foreign-branded rice products to local ones, but do not care much about their real origins.
Rice distribution shop owners said they name these rice products themselves or the foreign brands are just the name of imported rice seed varieties which are grown in Vietnam.
For buying 10 kilogrammes of Thai aromatic rice, Mrs. Nhung in HCM City’s District 10, was given one kilogramme of sugar, one bag of seasoning powder and some others things. She said her family has used “Thai rice” for many years.
Saigon Rice Agent on Bui Dinh Tuy Street in Binh Thanh District sells foreign-branded rice products of Thailand, the US, Taiwan and Japan. They are prominently displayed in order to attract customers.
Mr. Anh Tu, the shop-owner, said all rice products at his shop are bought from a company in Tien Giang Province.
“Traders buy paddy from farmers in the Mekong Delta region and then sell it to processing enterprises and we buy rice products from those firms; we do not import them,” he explained.
Currently, foreign-branded rice products are priced at between VND13,500 and 15,000 per kilogramme compared to VND18,000-20,000 for aromatic types of Vietnam rice.
Engineer Vo Hung Anh from the Vietnam Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Post-Harvest Technology said, “The names of foreign-branded rice products originate from the name of imported rice seed varieties, such as Jasmine and VD20 which are then grown in Vietnam.
However, after being grown in Vietnam for many crop cycles, these varieties partially lose their original character and their quality is not as good as it was when introduced by traders some time before.
Even though Vietnam is one of the top rice exporters in the world with around seven million tonnes of rice per year leaving the country, no Vietnamese brand of rice is well-known even in the domestic market.
Associate Prof. Dr. Mai Thanh Phung from the National Agriculture Extension Centre, said not only rice but also other farm producers are not stamped and labelled in the correct way. He added that Vietnam lacks prestigious rice trademarks to attract customers.
Nguyen Tri Tho, Deputy General Director of Vinafood II said the quality of rice varieties is not good, resulting in quick degeneration, therefore, it’s impossible to build strong brand recognition for any variety of Vietnamese rice
In many cases, several kinds of Vietnamese rice are favoured in many foreign markets for their good quality, but these varieties no longer exist in this country for export. For example, ST or IR 84 lines, he emphasised.
Popular aromatic products such Nang Thom Cho Dao or Nang Huong are often mixed with other rice products, affecting their quality, which renders them unattractive to customers.
Đăng ký: VietNam News