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Experts call for improved rice marketing
Viet Nam needs to develop brands for its rice varieties to add value to its exports, experts said.
Prof Vo Tong Xuan, former rector of An Giang University, said only rice with brand names should be exported to add value and benefit farmers.
"Farmers should co-operate with one another to grow larger quantities of rice and ensure quality," he added.
Pham Van Du, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Plant Cultivation Department, said Viet Nam achieved a breakthrough in exports between 1989 and 2009, achieving growth of 435 per cent.
In the period, it went from being a rice-deficient country to the world's second largest exporter of the grain.
However, the exports have not been stable in terms of either markets or prices, according to Du
The Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta accounts for 50 per cent of the country's rice output and 90 per cent of exports.
But a shortage of equipment for harvest and post-harvest preservation means the region loses large quantities of the grain while quality deteriorates.
Even in An Giang Province, one of the delta's leading provinces in terms of investing in equipment, the dryers available can only serve 50 per cent of the paddy output while warehouses can store 2 per cent.
The province loses around 12 per cent of its annual rice output of 3.4 million tonnes.
Another problem is that exporters often husk the paddy before stocking unlike in other countries where they store it unhusked. As a result, the quality of Vietnamese rice exports is low.
Dr. Pham Van Tan from the Southern Sub-Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Post Harvest Technology explained that husked rice degraded since insects and fungus would develop on it while the oil in the rice bran would oxidise over time. These would increase the rate of breakage and reduce the flavour, he said.
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