3:26:34 PM | 7/8/2005
The Mekong Delta region, Vietnam's largest rice growing area for export, is being flooded with Thai and Cambodian rice, which was transported along roads or the Mekong river via border provinces of An Giang and Dong Thap, leaving an empty domestic market for Vietnamese rice.
Several high quality Thai rice with trademarks Bong Sen (Lotus), Bong hong do (Red Rose) and Cotus, are selling at relatively high prices of around VND13,000 (US$8.3) per kilo while lower quality Cambodian rice is selling at around VND6,000 (US$4) a kilo in the region.
In Can Tho, local residents can buy Thai rice with trademarks of Khao Dawk Mali or Thaihommali at the Cai Khe Trade Center.
Thai and Cambodian rice is selling well in An Giang, the largest rice producer in the Mekong Delta, Dong Thap and several other localities. Meanwhile, consumers in the southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City can also buy high quality foreign rice at only VND5,000-7,000 a kilo as smaller rice traders are eyeing the potential city.
Le Viet Hai, Director of Can Tho-based Mekong Company, said that foreign rice in Vietnam is not completely “100 per cent Thai or Cambodian rice but 50 per cent Vietnamese. "Small rice traders mix Thai or Cambodia rice at prices of VND7,000 a kilo with Vietnamese rice at VND5,000 then resell at VND7,000 a kilo, earning profits of VND1,000 a kilo," Hai said.
The major reason for the inflows of foreign rice into the domestic market, according to market experts, is that local rice businesses "forget" and "ignore" local rice consumers.
"In Vietnam, there have been several rice trademarks such as BN1, Nam Thom, Nang Thom, Cho Dao that are equal in quality to the Thai ones but many Vietnamese do not know about them," he said.
"Being the world's second largest rice exporter, Vietnamese rice businesses were not considering the potential of the 80 million strong local market. They simply tried to sell their products abroad for US$20-40 a ton higher, leaving the domestic market open to foreign rivals," rice traders said.
"Several foreign rice exporters are intending to enter the Vietnamese market, with the Thai and Cambodian varieties the first of more to come," trade experts warned.
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