The sharing above was made by Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development – Tran Thanh Nam at the workshop to consult on improving policies and laws to build the brand of Vietnamese agricultural products, held on March 18 in Can Tho.
ST25 protection course difficult and costly
Labor hero Ho Quang Cua – the “father” of ST25 rice said that after ST25 rice won the world’s best rice award in 2019, for the past 4 years, the business (Hồ Quang Trí Sole Proprietorship) has continuously had to deal with intellectual property rights violations around the world, as well as domestically. “We have to fight hard to overcome”, Mr. Cua said.
Mr. Ho Quang Cua recalls the “battle” to protect the ST25 rice brand. Photo: Cảnh Kỳ.
Mr. Cua recalled that after six months of ST25 winning the world’s best rice award, a company in the US registered an exclusive ST25 brand. If we cannot stop that move, it means that they will protect it in other countries, meaning that ST25 of Vietnam will have no chance to appear in the world rice market.
“Under the guidance of the Intellectual Property Office, the Vietnamese Trade Office abroad, by September 2022 – 28 months from the time they register until the file is locked, that was the time we had to be patient, work with international lawyers, related parties… There are a total of 35 patent applications for exclusive protection of the ST25 keyword, of which the US has 11, Australia has 7, Vietnam has 17. They do not want to do the rice business, but they want to protect the exclusive rights of the ST25 brand to resell”, Mr. Cua said.
At the end of December 2023, the new “battle” ended when the ST25 brand was officially recognized in the US (previously recognized in the UK, EU, Hong Kong, China, Australia, Vietnam…). Now, any Vietnamese company that registers ST25 rice products under their own company name is protected in the US.
“It was a 4-year course full of difficulties and expense”, Mr. Cua concluded.
Managers, experts, businesses discuss the construction of policies for Vietnamese agricultural brands. Photo: Cảnh Kỳ.
Contacting Thailand, Mr. Ho Quang Cua said that the country built its national rice brand in 1998, up to now it has upgraded to the 6th and 7th versions. With each version, the standards are raised more strictly, only businesses that meet the new standards are allowed to use the national brand.
“Building the national rice brand needs to be done by the state, not to be entrusted to associations, because associations have different goals, and then there is horizontal competition. Building a brand needs to have a focus, a focal point”, Mr. Cua proposed.
“Bone-breaking lesson”
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam said that building a brand is very difficult, there are many loopholes that need to be overcome to perfect.
“At that time, Mr. Cua proposed to do (register the ST25 rice brand), we also wanted to do it, but we were prevented from doing so. We had to let businesses do it, so it was very difficult. Currently, the Vietnamese rice logo is recognized by 22 countries, but when it comes to applying it to the brand of ST25 rice to go to the world, there are many obstacles, so we still haven’t been able to do it”, Mr. Nam said.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development – Tran Thanh Nam speaks at the workshop. Photo: Cảnh Kỳ.
Referring to the story when he recently went to China, Mr. Nam said that at Giang Nam wholesale market (Guangdong province), the leaders of a local business said that they had imported many durians from Vietnam but had to sell at a loss. Because when distributing to businesses and retail points, they were all returned because the durians were rotten, unripe, of poor quality.
“He warned that if this situation is not corrected, in just 1 or 2 more years, Vietnamese durian will lose its market share, replaced by durian from Malaysia because this country is about to open the door for this type of fruit to China. This is a painful issue and we are very worried”, Mr. Nam added.
Returning to the story of the ST25 rice brand, Mr. Nam believes that he himself has learned a painful lesson. The Vietnamese rice brand logo was established in 2018, and by 2020, it was granted protection. Very eager to apply it to ST25 rice to go to the world, but there are many obstacles, so until now we still haven’t been able to do it.
“It is a painful loss of the brand, while companies are running to promote their own brands”, said the leader of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Mr. Tran Cong Thang – Director of the Institute of Policy and Agricultural Development Strategy said that Vietnam’s agricultural products have 11 groups of commodities with export turnover of over 1 billion USD; 6 groups of commodities have export turnover of over 3 billion USD (vegetables, rice, cashews, coffee, shrimp, wood and wood products); are present in most major import markets in the world (US, EU, Japan) …
However, 90% of agricultural products are still exported as raw materials, with lower export prices than similar products of many other countries; 80% of agricultural export output has not built a brand, has no logo, separate labels and has not fully participated in the global value chain. Vietnamese agricultural brands are violated abroad (ST25 rice, Phu Quoc fish sauce, Buon Ma Thuot coffee …) .
The issue of building and developing agricultural brands has been mentioned a lot, but it is still general, not specifically developed. Products are scattered in decisions and programs; there is no specific strategy, program for agricultural products. There is no connection, coordination among relevant parties (departments, industries; between central and local) …
