Make effort to remove the difficulties of rice export

Expected that the rice export would face not less difficulties in the near future, Mr. Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Import - Export Department (the Ministry of Industry and Trade) believed that both the Government, ministries, branches, and the exporters would have to work together from production process change to brand building, as well as promoting the link between the producers and the businessmen to overcome the obstacles.

Vietnam is in the top three rice exporters in the world. However, production and export of rice in Vietnam still exist with many inadequacies. Could you analyze this in more detail?

Vietnam has achieved rather stable rice export achievement, which contributes a lot in improving the living standard of farmers, maintains the development of rural areas. However, in recent years, the rice export activities have had some limitations that the ministries, branches and associations are surmounting.

• Firstly, the rice export products remain in large quantity although being of mainly medium and low quality products. As a consequence, the value of rice export is not really high.

• Secondly, the grain quality is uneven. This is related to the cultivation process when the cultivation process is too fragmented, using different varieties.

• Thirdly, the link among the units participating in production activities, rice export is not really connected firmly. It needs to have tight relationships between the farmers and the rice exporters. This leads from the fact that when the world market experiences some fluctuations, it will affect farmers’ rice purchases.

Recently, the Government has issued Decree 107/2018/ND-CP replacing Decree 109/2010/ND-CP on rice export business. In your opinion, how will Decree 107 have influences on business activities, rice export in the coming time

Decree 107 can be considered as a breakthrough in rice export policies and institutions. Compared with the previous Decree 109, Decree 107 creates a very liberal mechanism for the rice exporters. With the traders meeting certain conditions, it now allows some traders without a business license, rice exporters are still allowed to export when these traders focus on exporting organic rice, parboiling rice… Thus, if small and medium enterprises have not met the normal rice export conditions but focus on specific rice products, they will have opportunities to participate in the world market.

For the enterprises meeting the business conditions in rice export, now the conditions are also very liberal. For example, towards the conditions of milling facilities, warehouses, the enterprises can rent rather than own. This helps the enterprises save resources, take advantage of current facilities of other companies. The procedure for issuing the business certificates of rice export is also much simpler than before. The demand for registration of rice export contracts was abolished, which helps the enterprises to be more flexible and quickly access to the customers.

Brand building is recognized as one of the important solutions to raise the rice quality of Vietnam in the international market. What has the Ministry of Industry and Trade done to promote this issue, Sir?

One of the weaknesses of Vietnamese rice is that it has no brand though it has been exported to more than 150 countries and territories in the world. This has been the concern of ministries and rice export enterprises.

At present, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has presided over the Project of building and developing the rice brand. This Project focuses on solving some problems.

• Firstly, the image of Vietnamese rice grains and the country of Vietnam should be built as a rice exporting country not only in large quantities but also for high value commercial products.

• Secondly, we should build the image of Vietnam as a sustainable grain producing country with quality and safe food hygiene.

• Thirdly, we should conduct trade promotion activities to help the foreign buyers and foreign consumers to identify the image of Vietnam rice more clearly as well as see the position of Vietnamese rice grain more prominently around the world

• Fourthly, we should promote the linkage of production units as well as trade enterprises so that when the relations and interests among the parties stick together, the grain has sustainable development foundation.

Besides building brand, in order to promote more sustainable rice export, how will the Ministry of Industry and Trade make the effort to expand and transfer the rice export market in the future?

At present, China is Vietnam's largest rice importer. Under the scheme of promoting rice export, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has also set the target of diversifying markets. Generally, the Asian market accounts for more than 60% of rice export turnover. In the coming time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will promote the development of other markets, especially in Africa, Middle East, West Asia and South Asia. Next is the European market area including the EU, Russia and the former Soviet Union countries. This is a potential market block. Although the amount of rice consumption may not be as large as the above mentioned markets, this market area can consume high quality rice of Vietnam.

In your opinion, how is the prospect of rice export in the coming time, and what is the key solution for Vietnam to reach stable development and for increasing rice exports?

From 2016 until now, the rice export activities are on the growth. Rice exports reaching 6.1-6.4 million tons with a turnover of US$ 3.3-3.5 billion is expected at the end of this year. Despite the above results, in the future, the market still remains with many potential difficulties when world trade conflicts occur, the political situation in some areas is not really stable. Along with that, the natural disasters, epidemics are always stalking and threatening. Even today, some importing countries have a policy of self-sufficiency to limit imports. All this poses some challenges for Vietnamese rice.

In that context, the Government, ministries, branches, associations as well as the enterprises have to work together from production process change to brand building, as well as promote the link between producers and businessmen... All these factors will provide momentum for the Vietnamese rice grains to enter markets in a sustainable and stable way.

Sincerely thank you, Sir!