We cannot keep the rice market floating forever

The complaints of consumers such as buying rice of unknown origin, looking dizzy at the counter and not knowing where to turn… are completely true stories.

 

The writer tried going to the rice stalls in Can Tho and indeed, felt sorry for the women when they had to face the high price and low price of rice bran for sale.

 

These are Ham Chau rice, Nang Hoa rice, fragrant jasmine, milk resources and foreign rice types such as: “Thai soft”, “Thai sticky”, “Thai fragrant”, “Taiwan fragrant”, “Cambodian fragrant” rice. … how true it is is difficult to verify.

 

According to rice traders, the rice retail market in Vietnam has been floating and chaotic for many years.

 

Stemming from consumers’ need to use delicious, fragrant rice, a series of new rice names have been born, following the trend, but it seems that neither the seller nor the buyer knows the quality of that type of rice. Where does it come from?

 

Every time a rice brand is rumored to be delicious, the market immediately has that type of rice and buys as much as you want.

 

The story of engineer Ho Quang Cua’s ST25 rice winning the world’s best rice award is an example. Mr. Cua said that ST25 rice is still in the testing process and has not yet been sold on the market, but it is flooded with fake rice sold everywhere.

“This rice and that rice suddenly became ST25 rice. From the packaging, the outer label to the rice grains, they all faked it, misleading consumers” – Mr. Cua lamented.

 

 

 

 

The market is moving towards the need for traceability. Eating a fish, a shrimp, buying a bunch of vegetables, a bottle of water, a grain of salt, a grain of sugar… all must have a clear origin.

 

Rice is the main food of Vietnamese people, traceability is an indispensable need. However, for a long time, rice export businesses have ignored it and management agencies seem to be letting it go, forcing consumers to accept risks.

 

This situation is not new, but is becoming more and more pressing.

 

Businesses and delicious rice brand authors themselves cannot fight against all kinds of predatory business practices alone, but they need support from the State with the requirement to perfect the legal system and effective enforcement apparatus. fruit, protecting copyright and intellectual property rights for rice grains.

Today’s technology can provide tools to check and trace the origin and quality of products, but counterfeiting tricks still happen.

 

There is an Intellectual Property Law, Consumer Protection Law, Commercial Law and a legal system protecting copyright with full sanctions, but why do violations still recur?

 

Is it true that the effectiveness and efficiency of management is weak, and the reality is still in trouble with handling measures and the uniformity of legal regulations as well as coordination between agencies?

 

This situation requires more resolute and stronger enforcement measures to hope for delicious rice brands like ST25 to stand firm in the market, without being counterfeited or disturbed in origin or quality.