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Thai rice wins out in Vietnam
Paradoxically, consumers in Vietnam, the second biggest rice exporter in the world, prefer rice from Thailand.
A Tien Phong reporter toured a HCM City market on September 24 and saw Thai rice everywhere, from pavement shops in residential quarters, to retail markets and even in supermarkets.
Displaying a banner with “Vietnamese consumers are proud of Vietnamese goods” over the entrance, Coop Mart Phu My Hung in District 7 sells Thai and Japanese rice.
One rice shop owner at the market calculated that she sells up to one hundred kilograms of Thai rice on some days.
The wholesale price of rice runs between 9,000 and 16,000 dong per kilo. Meanwhile, luxury Thai rice strains are more expensive, at 26,000 dong per kilo, approximately double the domestic price.
Thai rice is sold regularly in the retail market. At Ba Chieu Market in Binh Thanh district, Thai-scented rice sold at 12,000 dong per kilo, Thai unpolished rice at 20,000 dong, while other types of rice, just labeled as “Thai import” sold at 20,000 dong per kilo.
Tu, an owner at Binh Dien Wholesale Farm Produce Market in HCM City, said that there is less Thai and Taiwanese rice than Mekong Delta rice, but the foreign rice volume is still considerable.
According to Tran Huu Loi, the owner of a large rice shop at Tran Chanh Chieu market, two out of every 10 wholesale shops are selling Thai rice and Loi himself has received a lot of offers from Thai rice importers.
Loi said that though Thai rice is very expensive, it is still the choice of many people, especially high income earners.
Vietnam has a rice variety that is also soft and fragrant like Thai rice. However, many Vietnamese consumers still prefer Thailand’s rice, Loi explained, because it does not become stale for a long time after it cools.
Nguyen Thi Phung, the owner of Ngoc Son rice shop at the Cai Khe Trade Center in Can Tho, noted that rice is even being imported from Cambodia for consumption in the provinces and cities of the Mekong Delta.
“It’s quite a surprise that the second biggest rice exporter in the world is eating rice imported from another country.
One of the reasons behind this is the unreasonable tax rate. Vietnamese enterprises can enjoy the VAT rate of zero percent when they export rice, while they have to pay 10 percent in VAT when they sell rice on the domestic market. That explains why enterprises focus on export and ignore the domestic market, allowing foreign rice to reign.”
(Nguyen Van Minh, Chairman of the HCM City Business Association)
VietNamNet, TP
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