High-quality segment maintains advantage
In the first months of 2026, Vietnamese rice exports faced downward price pressure as the world market adjusted after a period of rapid growth. However, this development does not reflect entire picture of rice industry.
According to the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection, Vietnam has exported approximately 2.3 million tonnes of rice since the beginning of the year. Notably, high-quality rice varieties such as Dai Thom 8 and OM18 account for nearly 50% of total exports, indicating that demand for fragrant and high-quality Vietnamese rice remains stable.
This is a result of restructuring of rice industry over the past years, with improved seed quality, a strong shift in product structure towards fragrant and specialty rice, more organized raw material areas and an increasingly better ability to fulfill big orders.
However, competitive advantage no longer lies primarily in productivity or price. Large and high-end import markets such as the EU, Japan and the US are imposing increasingly stringent requirements on food safety, pesticide residue levels, traceability, environmental responsibility and carbon emissions.
In an interview with Industry and Trade Newspaper, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Manh, Deputy Director of Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment), said that buyers are now not only concerned about price of the product but also about how rice is produced, whether its origin is transparent and whether it meets sustainable development standards. This forces Vietnamese rice industry to change its development mindset. Instead of chasing production volume, new goal is to improve quality, reduce production costs, reduce emissions and increase value.
According to a report by Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, after two years of piloting the project to cultivate 1 million hectares of high-quality, low-emission rice in Mekong Delta, positive changes have begun to appear. Farmers are reducing amount of seeds sown, saving on fertilizers and pesticides, reducing irrigation water, increasing mechanization and organizing production according to cooperative models and supply chain linkages.
A notable milestone is that from the first 400 tons of "green, low-emission Vietnamese rice" exported to Japan in mid-2025, approximately 70,000 tonnes of rice have now been granted this label and exported to Japan, Europe and Australia.
70,000 tonnes is not a huge amount compared to Vietnam's total rice exports, but it is particularly significant. This figure shows that Vietnamese rice has begun to meet new standards of global market, where carbon emissions are gradually becoming an important competitive criterion, no less important than quality or price. This reality also confirms a clear trend: Vietnam is gradually shifting from being a major rice exporter to a supplier of high-quality, green and environmentally responsible rice. Green transformation becomes a “passport” to high-end markets.
If previously green transformation was considered an environmental issue, it is now becoming a vital requirement for export-oriented agricultural sector. According to greenhouse gas inventory reports, Vietnam's agricultural sector emits nearly 90 million tons of CO₂ equivalent annually. Rice cultivation alone accounts for about 45 million tonnes, equivalent to half of total emissions of entire sector. This explains why reducing emissions in rice production is considered a focus of the sustainable agricultural development strategy.
According to Mr. Ly Viet Hung, Head of Carbon-Neutral Economy Department (Climate Change Agency), Mekong Delta is facing a major paradox. This region is both heavily impacted by climate change and has significant emissions from traditional agricultural production activities. "Only path to sustainable development is to shift to a low-emission production model through digitalization, smart water management, adaptable crop varieties, and circular economy development", Mr. Hung emphasized.
In fact, technologies once considered unattainable for farmers, such as environmental sensors, agricultural drones, digital maps of raw material areas, traceability platforms and alternating wetting and drying (AWD) irrigation systems, are gradually becoming essential tools of modern agriculture.
From a business perspective, story of ST25-Techpal rice demonstrates the true value of green transformation and traceability. With a tightly controlled raw material area, production according to GlobalGAP standards and connection to national traceability system, product has established a foothold in high-end retail systems in Australia. This model not only helps protect brands from counterfeiting, but also increases added value of products and brings better income to farmers through a guaranteed purchase mechanism at prices higher than market rate.
Meanwhile, studies from School of Agriculture - Can Tho University also show that low-carbon agriculture does not necessarily mean reduced economic efficiency. On contrary, crop rotation models, smart water management, or circular straw processing all help increase profits while significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
However, green transformation will be difficult to achieve breakthroughs without removing bottlenecks in capital, land, infrastructure, human resources, technology and markets. According to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Manh, this is also the reason why the agricultural sector is promoting the reorganization of production according to the "five stakeholders" chain, including farmers, cooperatives, businesses, scientists and management agencies.
In this model, cooperatives become foundation for organizing production, businesses play a leading role in the market and the State is responsible for establishing standards, monitoring quality and supporting connectivity. Furthermore, digitizing entire production process, from field diaries and planting area codes to input management and traceability, will create a transparent data ecosystem for the rice industry.
As importing markets increasingly prioritize traceability, carbon emissions and product sustainability, competitive advantage of rice is no longer determined primarily by price or volume. For Vietnam, shipments bearing the label "green Vietnamese rice, low emission" demonstrate that rice industry is gradually shifting from focusing on increasing production to improving quality and added value. This is not only a market requirement but also a necessary direction to enhance position of Vietnamese rice in global supply chain.

Source: Vitic/ congthuong.vn