Measures taken to prevent origin fraud of Vietnamese rice

According to statistics compiled by the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, as of mid-June local firms have imported 304,000 tonnes of Indian rice in different varieties.

The rise in imports of 5% broken and 100% broken rice from India can be attributed to the fact that these rice varieties are traded at only US$400 per tonne and US$280 per tonne, respectively, which is approximately US$100 per tonne lower than that of Vietnamese rice.

Furthermore, under the import tariff of the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement, 5% and 100% broken rice imported from the Indian market can enjoy a preferential tariff of 0%, a factor which serves to make Indian rice more competitive than Vietnamese rice.

This comes after Ho Chi Minh City’s customs department recently detained three shipments of rice which were passing through Cat Lai port after detecting signs of fraud relating to their Vietnamese origin.

Phan Van Co, marketing director of VRICE Co., Ltd., said that several domestic enterprises have recently imported Indian white rice and then mixed it with Vietnamese white rice in an attempt to export it under the label of Vietnamese origin.

The move has seriously affect the prestige of Vietnamese rice due to some customers in the Middle East complaining about the low quality of some batches of white rice imported from the nation.

Therefore, these customers have halted rice purchases from the country due to fears of purchasing Indian rice labeled with Vietnamese origin.

The recent origin fraud for Vietnamese rice has also caused the export price to rapidly drop from between US$520 and US$530 per tonne to only between US$470 and US$480 per tonne.  

To prevent origin fraud, local rice exporters have proposed a supervision mechanism for imported rice, whilst also publicising the names of businesses that import Indian rice and tighten control at border gates and ports.