Quang Tri rice to be exported to Laos through official channels

Rice processing at the Hung Oanh Facility, Quang Tri Township – Photo: VTH

Located in the southern key rice area of the Province, Ba Ben Industrial Cluster, Quang Tri Township has become the largest rice processing center in the Province with many large-scale rice production and processing facilities. Hung Oanh is one of them with an annual processing scale of more than 20,000 tons of rice. Hung Oanh's rice is currently available in various Northern provinces such as Ninh Binh, Thai Nguyen, Bac Giang, Hung Yen, Hai Duong and Nghe An. In these markets, Quang Tri rice has become a customer choice because of its good quality, clean production and reasonable price. Every day, Hung Oanh ships more than 30 tons of rice to other provinces.

From 2019, in addition to developing the domestic market, Hung Oanh has sought to expand direct exports to Laos. In previous years, Hung Oanh also had sold rice in these markets through unofficial quotas with traders in Lao Bao, and the volume has been modest.

Realizing this was a potential market, Hung Oanh representatives actively traveled to Laos to connect with businesses and individuals supplying rice there. They opened a representative office in Laos to facilitate the marketing activities as well as to seek new markets. In 2019, Hung Oanh directly exported more than 8,640 tons of rice to Laos through official channels, mainly to the Provinces of Savannakhet and Champasack. In 2020, the Facility has signed two contracts to supply 12,000 tons, in the first 7 months of the year. 7,000 tons have been exported, and the remaining 5,000 tons will be shipped in the coming months.

In order to ensure the rice export conditions, Hung Oanh has fully implemented administrative procedures such as getting an export license issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and product quality certifications. Hung Oanh met the requirements of infrastructure for rice production and processing such as a storage system and machinery and equipment which has been regulated by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Ms. Hoang Thi Ngoc Oanh the owner of Hung Oanh said: “During the process of fulfilling rice export procedures, we were well supported by the Department of Industry and Trade, Ward 2 Authority, the People's Committee of Quang Tri Township and Import/Export Department of Ministry of Industry and Trade. When exporting rice to Laos, we were also facilitated by the Lao Bao International Border Gate Customs to complete customs clearance procedures conveniently. In the coming time, Hung Oanh will promote seeking new markets in Laos to increase export volume, contributing much more to the provincial rice market development”.

In order to have enough processed rice to meet the needs of both domestic and foreign customers in a timely manner, Hung Oanh has organized the production and product supply chain. Both rice input and output are closely deployed to a system of buying and selling agents. Through input agents, the Facility buys rice right from the farmers' fields and through output agents, they supply rice to consumers. By this way, Hung Oanh has directly and indirectly created jobs for many farmers and small businesses at each step of the way of bringing rice grains from the fields into the hands of consumers. Farmers sell rice directly from their fields to Hung Oanh and then dry the rice, thereby gaining more job opportunities and increasing their income in addition to that of selling rice.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Le Thuy, a farmer in An Tiem Village, Trieu Thanh Commune, Trieu Phong District said: “In addition to timely purchasing rice from farmers in the fields at market prices, Hung Oanh has also created favorable conditions for farmers to participate in the rice drying process. Thanks to that, farmers can both, sell rice and have more jobs as well as gain additional income each harvest season to improve their lives”.

According to Ms. Oanh, the ability to develop the rice market in Laos is currently showing potential. In the coming years, Hung Oanh will focus on exploiting this export route. However, in order to ensure production capacity of both increasing export output and meeting the product quality requirements of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Hung Oanh must invest more in machinery and factories such as rice dryers and rice color separators. To expand the scale of production, the facility shall need a lot of support from the government such as preferential loans and land leases.

Regarding the input rice source, in order to meet the demand for export output, in addition to prioritizing the purchase of Quang Tri rice, Hung Oanh will expand the rice purchasing market to other nearby provinces in the region such as Thua Thien Hue and Quang Binh.

In addition to rice trading, currently Hung Oanh is also participating in stockpiling rice for sale to the province in the prevention and control of COVID-19. Rice reserving, which is taking place from now until next year's winter-spring crop harvest, will help the province to ensure food for the people during any potential COVID-19 outbreaks, contributing to the stability of the provincial food market.

The export of rice to Laos via official channels is a significant step in the rice business of the Hung Oanh Facility. This is a good sign for Quang Tri rice grains, and is also the first step for not only Hung Oanh but many other enterprises to open up business, bringing Quang Tri rice grains to many other countries in the world.

Vo Thai Hoa