ST25 rice has high value when exported to Europe

Building the ST25 rice brand

At the conference on linking sustainable rice production and consumption held in Soc Trang province recently, Mr. Pham Thai Binh - General Director of Trung An Hi-tech Joint Stock Company, said that among the rice varieties strongly exported from the beginning this year up to now, ST24 and ST25 rice reached the highest value at US$ 1,150 per ton (FOB price - excluding sea freight or shipping costs), as for the European market.

ST25 fragrant rice won the best rice award globaly 2019. The reputation has given ST25 and its sister ST24 good marketing conditions in the domestic and international markets.

Mr. Binh added: Over the years, ST24 rice has been exported stably to the EU market, in which the largest volume is exported to the German market. In other markets, Malaysia is one of the earliest markets that imported ST24 rice with good price at US$ 1,000 USD per ton. However, later on, due to unfair competition among some enterprises, the selling price decreased in comparison to the first years.

Mr. Ho Quang Cua is one of the main authors in the research group of ST rice varieties, and now a consultant of private enterprise Ho Quang Tri. According to him, after clarifying the enterprise’s documents, the US Intellectual Property Office has rejected an application to use the exclusive trademark ST25 in the US of a company and accepted the application for trademark protection in the US of enterprise Ho Quang Tri.

Currently, Ho Quang Tri enterprise has registered for trademark protection of ST24, ST25 rice and is accepted in the UK, EU, China and soon in Hong Kong, Australia, etc. Mr. Cua affirmed that other businesses would be shared the right to use ST25 intellectual property.

The European Customs agency has informed that the Research Institute in Germany analyzed DNA of ST24 and ST25 rice varieties and internationally announced the two rice products. “Therefore, if enterprises export any rice products, ST24 or ST25, they must specify the exact name of each rice product. If they write the wrong name, they will be fined,” said Mr. Cua.

The EU market is also interested in ST25 rice. However, among the nine types of fragrant rice exported from Vietnam to the EU, which enjoys preferential tariffs within the quota of 30,000 tons after the EVFTA comes into effect, ST25 rice is not included. The reason is that Vietnam and the EU had negotiated the EVFTA many years ago. At that time, the nine types of fragrant rice included in the EU list of preferential treatment under tariff quotas were all popular rice varieties in Vietnam. Meanwhile, ST25 rice had only been known widely since 2019 after winning the world's best rice competition.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the list of Vietnamese fragrant rice exported to the EU under tariff quotas is not a fixed and permanent list but can be adjusted and added new varieties if Vietnam proposed and the EU has the need to import.

Link to create material area

From the beginning of 2022, the domestic consumption and export rice markets have opened up many prospects. Although there are still some difficulties due to the high price of agricultural inputs, farmers still have solutions to stabilize production. Especially since farmers join agricultural cooperatives that have consuming linkage with enterprises, and at the same time apply technical measures to reduce production costs, the efficiency is higher than that of rice fields outside the cooperative.

Currently, rice export businesses believe that the rice market has good circulation with high demand. Many kinds of rice products are very well supplied by enterprises and consumed domestically. Packaged rice is competitive and becomes more and more popular.

Meanwhile, from the beginning of 2022, the export rice market has made good progress, with export output increasing. Along with high-quality rice varieties that have strengths in Vietnam's rice exports, two types of ST24 and ST25 rice for export always have high value in the group of fragrant rice products.

To maintain the rice market, it is necessary to do well from planting to producing rice, from the field to the factory. Since more than 10 years ago, Trung An Hi-tech Joint Stock Company has persistently implemented production links with farmers, cooperatives, cooperation groups, and formed large fields of 10,000 hectares or more in Kien Giang province, fields of over 1,000 hectares in Hau Giang and fields of over 3,000 hectares in Can Tho city.

“Linking rice production and consumption is the only way to improve Vietnam's rice brand. Through many years of implementing production linkages with farmers and cooperatives, I see that farmers agree absolutely. Farmers associated with enterprises are supported with input materials. They do not have to worry about the consumption as production meets the requirements of enterprises. Enterprises will work on the consumption signals from market demand,” affirmed Mr. Pham Thai Binh.

Rice currently accounts for a large proportion of agricultural exports in the Mekong Delta. By implementing production linkages, farmers feel secure as consuming is enterprises’ resposibility. Enterprises need farmers to create raw material areas, produce quality goods, provide sufficient quantity. This is a sustainable production method that holds the future for all partners.