Vietnam ships first batch of low-emission rice to Japan

The Vietnam Rice Industry Association (Vietrisa) and Trung An High-Tech Agriculture JSC celebrated the export of Japonica rice, which carries the new eco-label and is priced at US$820 per metric ton, at a ceremony in Can Tho City on Thursday.

The rice was cultivated in Kien Giang Province under Vietnam’s one million-hectare low-emission farming initiative, which aims to transform the Mekong Delta’s agriculture sector by 2030.

Trung An, headquartered in Can Tho, is one of seven companies licensed to use the new branding.

The firm has partnered with Japan’s Murase Corporation, a producer and distributor of rice and other agricultural products, to cultivate Japonica rice that meets Japanese quality standards and follows a farm-to-table model.

At the event, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Tran Thanh Nam, thanked Japanese partners for supporting the project and importing the product.

In a letter sent to the ceremony, National Assembly Deputy Chairman Le Minh Hoan—formerly Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment)—underscored the broader impact of the initiative.

Hoan also praised all stakeholders, from farmers to environmental scientists, for contributing to a new vision of Vietnamese agriculture.