For the first time, Vietnam's ST25 rice is included in the menu of the Japanese Cabinet Office

DNHN - Specifically, on September 2, a fried rice dish using ST25 rice from Vietnam became a “special lunch” at the Japanese Cabinet Office.

A representative of Spice House Co., Ltd - the distributor of ST25 rice in Japan - said that ST25 rice had won the title of “The best rice in the world” in 2019 and was trusted by many people. Therefore, Spice House has cooperated with Kiraboshi Bank and Suntomi International Company (importing company) to bring ST25 rice from Vietnam to Japanese consumers.

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Japan, to bring ST25 rice into the Japanese market, Vietnamese enterprises must pass more than 600 strict technical standards along with very high requirements of Japanese consumers. Therefore, this is a great success for producers as well as traders when they bring ST25 rice to the Japanese market.

In the brochure located at the Cabinet Office of Japan, the ST 25 fragrant rice is famous delicious rice from Vietnam. After more than 1 year of negotiation and quality control, Spice House Co., Ltd. has succeeded in bringing ST25 rice to consumers in Japan. From planting, quality monitoring, harvesting, packaging and preservation, the processes are strictly controlled to ensure the quality of fragrant, firm, naturally sweet rice grains.

Thus, the export of ST25 rice to the Japanese market proves that Vietnam not only exports a lot of rice but also delicious rice, which meets the very high standards of the Japanese market.

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Japan, in 2021, Vietnam's rice exports to Japan will only reach 48.7 million yen and account for only about 0.09% of Japan's total rice imports.

With the trend of trade liberalization taking place strongly on a global scale, Japan is still a country with a high level of protection for domestic agriculture. Rice is also a sensitive commodity that Japan wants to protect and remove from the list of negotiating tariff reductions in free trade agreements.

Currently, in the FTAs ​​to which Vietnam and Japan are members (including AJCEP, VJEPA, CPTPP, and RCEP Agreements), Japan does not have any special preferential commitments for rice imported from Vietnam. Vietnamese rice that wants to be exported to Japan must participate in international bidding packages (according to the normal market access mechanism - OMA, or the parallel trading mechanism - SBS).

In the Japanese market, Vietnamese rice has not been competitive enough compared to rice from the United States, Thailand, China and Australia, so in recent years, Vietnamese rice has entered the Japanese market mainly through non-commercial routes in negligible quantity and is mainly used as raw materials for processing other foods such as cakes, miso... The event of 100 tons of ST25 rice was sold at supermarkets and shops in Japan in July. The past year has marked an important milestone when Vietnamese rice will officially appear on the dining table of Japanese families. This is a good sign for future Vietnamese rice exports to Japan.

Thanh Ha