Scientific breeding and private innovation propelled Vietnam’s exports, but branding battles now threaten progress.

Once a nation reliant on imported rice and low-yield local varieties, Vietnam has transformed into a global rice export powerhouse. This success story is largely credited to advancements in rice breeding, resulting in high-yield, disease-resistant varieties that are now recognized among the best-tasting rice in the world.

From food insecurity to a rice-exporting giant

After national reunification in 1975, agriculture in the Mekong Delta (ĐBSCL) faced immense challenges. Despite its fertile land, the region primarily cultivated traditional wet-season rice, limited to one or two harvests per year with an average yield of just 2.5-3 tons per hectare, producing around 5 million tons annually.

In 1976-1977, a brown planthopper outbreak devastated rice crops across the Mekong Delta, leading to widespread crop failure and forcing many farmers to buy rice for consumption. This crisis revealed an urgent need for pest-resistant, short-cycle, dwarf rice varieties. Late Professor Vo Tong Xuan recalled: “We contacted the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, which was established in 1960 with world-leading scientists. We aimed to leverage their achievements for Vietnam.”

Receiving samples of rice varieties IR32, IR34, IR36, and IR38 from IRRI, Professor Xuan and staff from the Faculty of Agriculture at Can Tho University began trials. IR36 emerged as the most promising and was selected for wide-scale cultivation. In an unprecedented move, Professor Xuan proposed closing Can Tho University for two months to send students into the fields. Students joined farmers in a “campaign to defeat the brown planthopper,” guiding them through the process of transplanting and caring for the new variety.

Two years later, the pest was eradicated in the Mekong Delta, and rice yields improved significantly. By 1989, the region’s output surged, and Vietnam began exporting rice.

A breeding revolution

Dr. Tran Ngoc Thach, Director of the Mekong Delta Rice Institute (formerly the O Mon Rice Institute established in 1977), said that the institute transformed many low-yield traditional rice varieties into high-quality OM (O Mon) varieties. These new strains were early-maturing, high-yielding, pest-resistant, and adapted to saline and acidic soils in the western Mekong region.

Today, OM varieties account for 65-70% of the region’s cultivated rice area and are favored by farmers and international markets alike.

Among these, OM18 (over 1 million hectares), OM5451 (more than 700,000 hectares), and OM380 (nearly 500,000 hectares) are key contributors to Vietnam’s rice exports. Together, OM18 and OM5451 make up 60-70% of the country’s exported rice. Other varieties like OM4900, OM6162, and OM6976 continue to play significant roles in regional rice production.

Building Vietnam’s rice brand

Phan Thien Khanh, a farmer from Can Tho who has visited rice fields abroad, believes OM varieties deliver superior efficiency. They are pest-tolerant, less prone to lodging, short in growth cycle, and offer high grain quality. These traits help maximize land use, stabilize output markets, and increase profitability for farmers.

Pham Thai Binh, Chairman of the Board of Trung An High-Tech Agriculture JSC, affirmed that self-bred rice like OM has transformed the industry. A robust value chain has taken shape – from seed production to large-scale farming, post-harvest processing, and export.

With continuous efforts from farmers, innovative breeding, and improved production techniques, rice yields in the Mekong Delta now exceed 6.2 tons per hectare. Many areas produce three crops annually, making the region Vietnam’s primary rice basket and a pillar of national food security and export.

Facing the challenges of climate change, drought, saltwater intrusion, and evolving market preferences, the Mekong Delta Rice Institute is actively developing new varieties better suited to these conditions.

ST25 and the price of neglecting intellectual property

Beyond public institutions, private innovators have also played a vital role in elevating Vietnam’s rice quality. A notable example is Labor Hero and engineer Ho Quang Cua, whose team developed the ST (Soc Trang) rice series. Their ST25 rice won the title of World’s Best Rice in 2019, following the success of ST24. Other high-quality Vietnamese brands include “Hat Ngoc Troi Thien Vuong” by Loc Troi Group (winner of the 2018 award, officially announced in 2021), and the TBR and TB lines from Thai Binh Seed Company.

However, the success of these brands also highlighted a glaring issue: trademark protection.

According to the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam has 11 agricultural product groups with annual export values over USD 1 billion, and six groups exceeding USD 3 billion. Despite this, 90% of Vietnamese agricultural exports are raw goods with low export value, and 80% lack branding, logos, or full integration into global value chains. Trademarks for Vietnamese products are frequently violated overseas, as seen with ST25 rice, Phu Quoc fish sauce, and Buon Ma Thuot coffee.

As of October 2021, the “Vietnam Rice” trademark had been registered in 22 countries. However, due to legal issues around its management and usage, no Vietnamese business has been authorized to use this certification mark for production or trade.

Reflecting on the legal battle to protect the ST25 name, Ho Quang Cua shared that after ST25 was named the world’s best rice in 2019, his company (Ho Quang Tri Private Enterprise) faced repeated trademark violations at home and abroad. In the US, one company attempted to register ST25 as an exclusive keyword. Had this succeeded, ST25 would have been locked out of global markets.

“It took 28 months to block that filing, with the case officially closed on September 22, 2022. We received full trademark protection in the US in December 2023. It was a four-year struggle – costly and exhausting,” Cua said.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Tran Thanh Nam noted that Vietnamese rice is often rebranded in other countries before being sold elsewhere, stripping it of its origin and value. Although Vietnam’s rice logo is now recognized in 22 countries, legal hurdles have prevented its application to major products like ST25.

Nam described the ST25 incident as a “hard-earned lesson.” Despite Vietnam’s rice brand logo being finalized in 2018 and receiving international protection by 2020, it has yet to be applied to ST25 exports due to legal barriers – wasting a critical branding opportunity while private firms must promote their own identities independently.

Tien Phong

Published Date: September 15, 2025