A golden sweep of ripening rice fields now blankets Los Palacios district, Pinar del Río province of Cuba, heralding a breakthrough in agricultural cooperation between Vietnam and Cuba.

The success of the rice sector is the fruit of a concerted effort spanning research, production and trade, with high-quality seeds delivered to farmers' hands, former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat has assessed.

VOV.VN - Vietnam has nine fragrant rice varieties that enjoy tax incentives within their export quota into the European Union, but there are no world’s best rice varieties ST24 and ST25, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

Vietnam will develop and diversify rice export markets with a reasonable, stable, and effective scale, market and product structure under a strategy recently approved by the Prime Minister.

The structure of Vietnam's rice for exports has shifted towards increasing the proportion of high-value-added rice varieties and reducing the rate of low-grade rice products.

VOV.VN - A representative of the Vietnam Trade Office in Australia has said the office is deploying emergency measures aimed at protecting Vietnamese rice trademarks after an Australian firm registered for trademark protection of Vietnamese rice varieties ST24 and ST25.

The Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu has decided to expand the cultivation of ST 24 and ST 25, two local rice varieties that rank among the world’s best, this year.