Vietnamese ST25 rice is used in Japanese Cabinet Office lunch (photo: MOIT)

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Japan, Vietnamese ST25 rice was served at lunch at the Japanese Cabinet Office in early September. In order to bring ST25 rice to the Japanese market, Vietnamese enterprises had to meet more than 600 strict technical standards, requiring  a great effort by Vietnamese enterprises after a year of negotiations.

In September, the Loc Troi Group exported a Vietnamese rice product branded "Com Vietnam Rice" through TT Foods to France’s E.Leclerc market chain. Before that, 500 tons of "Com Vietnam Rice" was put on the shelves of the famous Carrefour system in France.

For the last 20 years, Vietnamese rice has been exported in anonymous bags or packed under the brand name of foreign importers. 2022 is the first year that Vietnamese rice has been exported with the registered "Made in Vietnam" trademark.

The Loc Troi Group said its rice exports have grown strongly in the past 9 months, more than in all of 2021. The company plans to expand its production and export to Europe, the US, Japan, and Australia, wherever it can meet the requirements for low pesticide residue. According to the TT Foods Company, high quality Vietnamese rice is popular in Japan, the US, and Europe. Vietnamese businesses are receiving a growing number of orders from those markets.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) says the US market is very fond of Vietnamese fragrant and long-grain rice like ST25. US imports of that rice type has increased sharply in the past two years.

Vietnam is currently the world’s third largest rice exporter after India and Thailand. Its annual export is 6-6.5 million tons, accounting for 7.8% of global trade. Vietnamese rice has been exported to 28 countries and territories,  mostly in Asia and Europe.

The Prime Minister recently asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to develop a project to produce one million hectares of high-quality rice in the Mekong Delta.