Renewing ST25 rice brand to combat counterfeits

Introducing "Ong Cua Rice" brand

Currently, private enterprise Ho Quang Tri contracts with farmers in Soc Trang to grow and sell "genuine ST25" rice. As a result, establishing reputation through the system of retail rice agents in the domestic market.

However, business representatives complained about counterfeiting of trademarks and packages discovered in some localities. After each batch of new packaging appearing on the market, after only 5 days, rice dealers reported that there were counterfeits and imitation goods.

Recently, Ho Quang Tri enterprise launched the brand "Ong Cua Rice" with anti-counterfeiting stamp as a way of renewing the ST25 fragrant rice product.

In the past 3 years, among famous Vietnamese rice, especially after the event at which ST25 rice  won World's Best Rice contest of 2019, it has created a strong resonance and attraction in both the domestic and foreign markets.

Since then, trade of fake rice seeds to counterfeit rice brands started appearing. At the Ho Quang rice seed research and production farm, produced rice seed is sold on demand, with local businesses and agricultural cooperatives placing orders.

By the beginning of 2020, the supply of seed rice is scarce, but there are already fake rice seeds on the market for sale to farmers. Although businesses in the seed production and business industry constantly complain to the authorities, the fight against counterfeiting shows that more drastic and effective measures are required.

In the immediate future, in order to combat counterfeiting, the enterprise recommends that farmers and consumers find reputable sales agents in the company's distribution system when buying rice seeds or bagged rice with the published labels identified on the bags.

Recently, when southern provinces and cities implemented social distancing according to Directive 16 by the Prime Minister, especially in the first few weeks, Mekong Delta provinces arranged many checkpoints to strictly control the means of transport. As such, transportation of rice seeds is relatively difficult.

Excluding national highways which are designated "green channels" for the circulation of agricultural products, rice can't be delivered to farmers and sale agents using rural or provincial roads. Businesses wishing to transport goods said that sometimes the drivers are forced to turn their vehicles around.

Currently in the Mekong Delta, the rice market is stable. Medium quality rice has the lowest retail price at 13,500-14,000 VND/kg. In the high-quality fragrant rice segment, ST25 fragrant rice always be ranked highly. In Can Tho city "Ong Cua ST25 Rice" has anti-counterfeiting stamp, sold at 160,000 - 170,000 VND/bag (5kg). According to some retail stores, currently the purchasing power has decreased by 50%, due to difficult transportation, interrupted supply from Soc Trang, especially goods transported to remote provinces and cities.

Improve quality, increase supply

According to Soc Trang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the 2021 summer-autumn rice crop is being harvested. In Nga Nam town, high-quality rice varieties are exported. Farmers sell fresh rice in the field for over 5,000-5,400 VND/kg. While ST24 rice produced by farmer cooperatives in association with businesses is sold at 7,000-7,400 VND/kg.

But in order to keep the quality of good rice at a reasonable price, businesses building their own rice brands set requirements to link rice consumption with cooperatives and production cooperative groups, in which they order and use authentic certified rice varieties from Ho Quang production farm.

Labor hero Ho Quang Cua, the main creator in the ST rice variety research group, stated that the to maintain the delicacy of rice and fragrant rice varieties, cultivation process must be of good quality and properly applied. Therefore, the research, selection, breeding, purification and improvement of the quality of rice varieties are almost continuous and non-stop.

During the implementation of social distancing, workers are on leave. Engineer Cua is still hard at work in the rice seed field. He said: Two rice varieties ST24, ST25 have shaped, standardized and maintained good rice quality throughout many crops, stabilizing yield. Although it takes a lot of money and effort, it is necessary to continue to purify and select rice blast resistant lines, so that rice plants can still be healthy and grow well even without pesticides.

According to Mr. Cua, observing consumer tastes, ST24 rice varieties with pineapple aroma were ordered to be produced and supplied to supermarkets. ST25 rice is fragrant with young rice scent, along with the reputation of being favored by customers in northern provinces, especially as gifts for holidays and Tet. Therefore, ST25 has been ordered by many businesses to have seeds produced in the provinces of Ca Mau peninsula.

After 2020, fragrant rice fields ST24, ST25 gradually spread from Soc Trang to Bac Lieu, Ca Mau and Kien Giang provinces. In early 2021, Bac Lieu province and Thoi Binh district (Ca Mau) have a program to support farmers with over 110,000 hectares. Especially in the rice-shrimp area, there is a need for nearly 2,000 tons of seed.

Businesses like Co May, Tan Vuong, Trung An... order original rice seeds, produce and cooperate with consumption cooperatives, cooperative groups to form large fields in many localities. Fortunately, in July and August, the rice seed was brought to the localities in time for the crop.

Currently, a number of businesses and cooperatives have formed a production chain, from using the original seed to the production area. In the rice-shrimp rotation area of ​​Soc Trang, Ben Tre, Ca Mau... it is very suitable to grow organic rice. Ho Quang Tri now has more ST24 and ST25 Hoa Nang rice meeeting international organic standards of USDA (USA) and EU Organic Farming (Europe).

"There have been a number of businesses investing in the production and forming of organic rice growing areas in the coastal provinces of the Mekong Delta. In which, many ST24 and ST25 rice areas are grown by farmers in cooperatives following the smart farming model, with organic orientation, weather adaptation, and little or no use of fertilizers and chemical pesticides. Clean rice in the rice-shrimp area lower production costs. Random testing of pesticide residue indicators of rice cultivated under the rice-shrimp model shows that it is not much different from that of organic rice," said Mr. Ho Quang Cua.