Building a national rice trademark is a crucial and urgent task, stressed Duong Quoc Xuan, Deputy Head of the Steering Committee for the Southwestern Region (SCSR), at a conference on the future of Vietnamese rice held in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on December 11.

Although Vietnam is the second largest rice exporter in the world, its rice value is not high as the country is yet to build its own trademark in the global market, he said.

The Mekong Delta, the rice bowl of the country, lacks investment in rice development and many localities in the region have not fully tapped their potential, he said, stressing the importance of building a national rice trademark to enable the local product to lead the world market.

Sharing Xuan’s views, Vice Chairman of the Can Tho People’s Committee Dao Anh Dung, said it is necessary for the region to increase rice productivity and quality as local people remains poor although they contribute 90 percent of the country’s rice export volume.

Many experts held that domestic rice production has failed to maintain its sustainability, attributing it to the lack of high-quality rice varieties, high post-harvest losses, and poor regional connectivity and collaboration among the government, scientists, businesses and farmers.

Developing the rice market is a long-term measure to stimulate and stabilise production, reduce risks for farmers, and increase profits, they said, adding that the application of advanced technologies is needed to find out high yield and quality varieties that can be resistant to diseases and adapt to climate change.-VNA