Restructuring the Vietnamese Rice Sector: Towards Increasing Sustainability

Matty Demont,Pieter Rutsaert

doi:10.3390/su9020325

Abstract

Although Vietnam is one of the biggest rice exporters today, there is an urgent need to restructure the sector. To guide the transition from being a quantity-focused producer to a credible supplier of quality rice, this study explores the sector’s opportunities for sustainable value chain upgrading. Data was collected through focus group discussions with farmers, stacked surveys with rice value chain stakeholders, and a participatory workshop bringing several value chain actors together. Stakeholders perceive the sector’s capability to grasp opportunities (including growing export and domestic markets) to be higher than its resilience to potential threats (including more stringent food safety regulations and climate change). Three strategies are discussed for making rice value chains more sustainable; embodying sustainability in the product through certified sustainable production labels; internalizing sustainable production standards through vertical coordination (e.g., contract farming); and disembodying sustainability through book and claim certificate trading.

Highlights

Vietnam’s development performance in the last two and a half decades is considered as ‘one of the most spectacular in the developing world’ [1]
Due to increasing production costs, the Vietnamese rice export sector can no longer rely on cost-competitiveness, a strategy it has successfully maintained for decades
Purposive sampling was done by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) in Can Tho and An Giang, so as to capture to the maximum extent possible the geographic and functional diversity of actors and channels in the Mekong Delta (MKD) rice value chain

Summary

Introduction

Vietnam’s development performance in the last two and a half decades is considered as ‘one of the most spectacular in the developing world’ [1]. The rapid growth of the agriculture sector and in particular the rice subsector served as the foundation for Vietnam’s success story. The rice sector in the Mekong Delta (MKD), the country’s rice producing belt, has transformed the country from suffering a rice deficit into a huge rice surplus economy. It has more than surpassed this goal, as rice exports serve both commercial urban markets in Africa and the food security programs of rice importing countries like the Philippines and Indonesia by stocking their public food distribution and safety net programs [2]. The rice sector provided affordable and accessible food, ensuring food security. The rice sector was instrumental in generating foreign exchange revenues, which were used to finance the development of manufacturing and service sectors as well as providing surplus labor for urban centers [3]

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Discussion

Conclusion