Businesses indifferent to Vietnams national rice brand

After a long period of selection, Vietnam's national rice brand has been established and agencies are fulfilling procedures to register for international protection. However, businesses have not shown much interest.

Vietnam's national rice brand has been established

One year ago, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) launched a competition on designing a logo for Vietnam’s national rice brand. The result of the competition will be announced in July.

According to Le Thanh Tung from the Department of Crop Production, Vietnam has filed an international trademark registration application to the Madrid system - a system built on the basis of the Madrid Protocol and the Madrid Agreement. Thanks to the participation of most of the countries in the agreement, this is considered a regimen to obtain protection worldwide.

Tung also said that MARD has promulgated regulations on the use of Vietnam’s national rice brand.

Institutions and individuals have the right to use Vietnam’s national rice brand if they have certificates on business registration, certificates on meeting standards on food safety, and certificates on the conformity of their products with Vietnamese standards. 

The rice products which bear Vietnam’s national rice brand include white rice (long and short grain), fragrant white rice (long and short grain) and white glutinous rice.

Rice products must meet requirements stipulated in national standards. White rice, for example, must meet TCVN 11888:2017, fragrant white rice TCVN 11889:2017 and white glutinous rice TCVN 8368:2010. 

Institutions and individuals can only use the national brand for products granted certificates for the right to use the brand.

Pham Thai Binh, director of Trung An Hi-tech Agriculture, confirmed that he has received documents that guide the implementation of the national rice brand. However, he said this would not influence his enterprises.

“We will keep exporting rice as usual. We will not attach another logo to our products. It is still unclear about the impact the logo can have,” he said.

Rice products must meet requirements stipulated in national standards. White rice, for example, must meet TCVN 11888:2017, fragrant white rice TCVN 11889:2017 and white glutinous rice TCVN 8368:2010. 

Lam Anh Tuan, director of Thinh Phat, said he is not interested in using the brand because no exporter sells rice with Vietnam’s national brand. His partners have not asked him about the national brand.

“I think the enterprises that export specialty rice or fragrant rice would be interested in this. We only export popular white rice,” Tuan explained.

Meanwhile, Luu Minh Duc, former director of Trung Thanh Food, expressed his concern that if inauthentic businesses can use the national brand and their fraud is discovered, other businesses would face misfortune.