Hybrid rice market: Competition in quality and price

(Baonghean) -The production season is approaching, many units have rushed into the rice seed business. The new point of the current rice seed market is that units pay more attention to quality and competitive prices.

Spring crop is the main crop of the year for food crops. According to the plan, in the 2012 spring crop, the whole province will plant 85 thousand hectares of rice. To create a breakthrough in productivity and contribute to the goal of ensuring food security, the province plans to restructure 65 thousand hectares of hybrid rice, accounting for over 70% of the total cultivated area of ​​the crop. Therefore, the demand for hybrid rice seeds is very large. In the 2012 spring crop, the whole province will need over 2,000 tons of hybrid rice seeds of all kinds.

Grasping this need, many organizations and individuals inside and outside the province have rushed into the business of buying and selling seeds. In addition to the units with the function of trading seeds in the area such as: Nghe An Seed Joint Stock Company, Central Seed Joint Stock Company - Vinh Branch, Nghe An Agricultural Materials Joint Stock Corporation, Nghe An Seed Center, there are also agents for seed trading enterprises outside the province: Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, Thai Binh, Southern Seed Joint Stock Company, Hai Phong High Technology Seed Company, Nong Tin Seed Company. All units have shown to be very sensitive in grasping the needs of seed structure to exploit seed sources to serve farmers. The rice varieties sold by units and businesses are mostly 3-line hybrid rice varieties: Khai Phong No. 1, Nhi Uu 986, TH3-3, Nhi Uu 838, BTE1, PHB71, BC15, BIO404... and pure rice varieties: Khang Dan super pure and pure, sticky rice 97, sticky rice 87, Huong Thom, Bac Thom... Through observation, seed business units have made adjustments in methods and focused on the quality of seed sources. The Director of Nghe An Seed Joint Stock Company said: The company's viewpoint is not simply to pursue quantity but to focus on quality. To ensure the source of 3-line hybrid rice seeds for the spring crop, from the beginning of March 2011, the company has made a plan to sign an order contract with a customer, in October 2011 to check the quality of the seeds and in November 2011 to bring the seeds back. Upon import, the company brought the seeds to a laboratory licensed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to test the germination rate and ensure they meet the requirements before releasing them from the warehouse. Like previous years, the seeds ordered by the company from Sichuan, China have exclusive designs for labels and quality warranty stamps, making them very difficult to imitate. For many years now, the 3-line hybrid rice varieties such as Khai Phong No. 1 and Nhi Uu 986 supplied by the supplier have been of good quality and trusted by farmers.

Central Seed Joint Stock Company, Vinh Branch, prepares pure rice seeds to serve the 2012 spring crop production.

The Central Seed Joint Stock Company - Vinh Branch, one of the main units supplying rice varieties in the country, has also made adjustments to its service methods this year. Mr. Nguyen Van Ly, Branch Director, said: This year, the company only supplies 2 types of hybrid rice varieties with 3 main lines: Khai Phong No. 1 and Nhi Uu 838. These two rice varieties originate from Tu Du, Sichuan (China), with a very limited quantity of about a few dozen tons. Some other hybrid rice varieties such as Nhi Uu 63, TH3-4 are also introduced but very few. Learning from previous crops, the unit pays more attention to quality and appearance, not chasing quantity. The company does not trade rice varieties such as Nhi Uu 986 because the quality was not guaranteed last year after post-inspection. Visiting the branch's seed warehouse, we saw that the unit is currently trading in high-quality pure rice varieties: Khang Dan mutant, Huong Thom HT1, sticky rice 97, sticky rice 87, mutant rice 6 and Q5. Although these varieties are not very profitable, they are safe.

For Nghe An Agricultural Materials Joint Stock Corporation, the unit's orientation is to focus on supplying pure rice production with high yield and quality to serve the commodity rice production program according to domestic market demand. Therefore, this crop, the company only launched 50 tons of Nhi Uu 838 3-line hybrid rice to serve the intensive farming needs of mountainous districts according to the province's policy, the remaining 200 tons are high-quality pure rice varieties VTNA1 and VTNA2. Up to this point, VTNA1 has been sold out.

Regarding prices, rice varieties have similar prices. For example, Nghe An Seed Joint Stock Company and Central Seed Joint Stock Company - Vinh Branch both sell Nhi Uu 838 at 72 thousand VND/kg, Khai Phong No. 1 at 94 thousand VND/kg; pure rice varieties are all priced at 14-20 thousand VND/kg. Hybrid rice varieties as well as pure rice varieties have increased compared to the 2011 spring crop by 5-10 thousand VND/kg. Compared to the general exchange rate of rice, the price of rice varieties this year is not high, in line with the market.

To tighten the seed supply, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is directing suppliers to fulfill their commitment to ensure quality. However, if not strictly managed, taking advantage of the scarcity of seeds, profiteers will release poor quality seeds to the market, because in the spring of 2011, many seed suppliers have a very large amount of hybrid rice in stock.

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