Local rice varieties are losing out to imports in urban areas where an increasingly affluent populace does not mind paying extra for perceived quality. For several years, imported rice has penetrated the domestic market and is already well-known to customers.
Especially in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, major markets and rice supermarkets widely stock imported varieties like Thai Jasmine rice, sticky Thai AAA rice, and aromatic rice from Taiwan, South Korea, the Netherlands and Japan.
Despite costing more than local varieties, imported rice is still favored by consumers. While Vietnamese Nang Thom Cho Dao rice is priced at VND7,500 per kilo, Thai AAA is sold at VND8,000 per kilo, Japanese fragrant rice is VND8,200 and Korean rice at VND18,000 per kilo.
Thai rice and others have shown advantages over Vietnamese rice in the medium-class market, with Thai products sold at VND5,200, and Taiwanese at VND5,500 per kilo. In Hanoi, Hai Hau fragrant rice was once considered number one, but now it has to share the market with Thai rice.
Some Hanoi consumers said unlike Vietnamese rice the imports had ingredients printed on the package to help them choose, the rice turned white, fragrant, and sticky when cooked, and did not shrivel and harden over time.
They also added that imported rice was available all year round while some local varieties were only harvested once a year, they said.
Many rice shops in Mekong Delta Can Tho city now offer Thai packaged fragrant rice; however, some dealers at the city's An Hoa Market say that in fact, the rice is produced domestically.
Tran Ngoc Suong, Director of Song Hau Farm acknowledged that Thai rice is plentiful in Mekong River Delta provinces, but sometimes consumers are cheated when in fact they buy locally produced rice, as several kinds of domestic rice are labeled as Thai and sold at high prices.
It is clear that imported rice has outstanding features; however, a question has been raised as to why local producers focus on export markets, while neglecting the domestic market.
Dong Thap Food and Materials Import - Export Company produces 200,000 tons of rice every year, while only a small proportion is consumed in the domestic market.
Explaining the situation, Ms Suong from Song Hau Farm said that the domestic market is controlled by small dealers and enterprises, who make corrupt use of tax policy loopholes to sell rice at cheap prices; however, these kinds of rice cannot compete with imported rice.
Meanwhile, state owned enterprises, imposed with a 5 per cent VAT, cannot sell rice at competitive prices. Song Hau Farm has been trying to boost its trademark, but it has not yet been able to cement its position in the domestic market.
Last year, farmers nationwide harvested nearly 35.7 million tons of rice. Of the volume, more than 30 million tons of rice was used to fulfill the domestic demand while the remainder was dedicated for export.
Vietnam, the world's second largest rice exporter after Thailand, has come a long way from a food importer to a rice exporter. The country's major rice export markets currently includes Indonesia, Iraq, Africa, Cuba, the Philippines, and Japan.
Family & Society, Labour
Vietnamese
