Strong “transformation” of agricultural products

Son La Province has attached importance to its farm produce branding pertaining to geographical indication (GI) and trademark protection registration to add value to products and expand the market for provincial produce.

According to the Son La Provincial Department of Science and Technology, in recent years, the number of products registered for intellectual property (IP) right protection has increased. The province has three products protected in terms of geographical indication, including Moc Chau Shan Tuyet tea, Yen Chau round mango, and Son La coffee.

Son La coffee products have been granted a geographical indication protection certificate by the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam - photo: Son La Newspaper

Particularly, Son La coffee has been granted a GI protection certificate by the Ministry of Science and Technology’s National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam (NOIP). Son La coffee has been exported to the US, Japan, the EU, and Germany, among other markets, helping improve incomes of thousands of farmer households in various regions in the province.

The Son La Arabica coffee products, including coffee beans, roasted coffee beans, and ground coffee, were granted a GI registration certificate by the NOIP in 2017. Six enterprises and cooperatives have been granted the right to use the GI certificate by the Son La Provincial Department of Science and Technology.

The GI protection and trademark protection certification has added value to Son La coffee products and helped the province expand coffee production and improve product quality.

Nguyen Thi Kim Xuyen, Head of the specialized management division of the provincial Department of Science and Technology, said, “The GI certificate is a big advantage of Son La coffee because in agriculture, the GI indicates a specific region, locality, territory or country from which a product originates. The reputation of a GI-certified product is determined by the level of consumer confidence in that product. In other words, the GI creates a competitive advantage for the product thanks to its characteristics and reputation that similar products originating from other geographical areas do not have.”

Elevating brands through GIs

In order to elevate local agricultural products, Son La Province has focused on building safe material areas and applying advanced technologies to creating high-quality products meeting domestic and international market demands. Notably, developing brand communities helps Son La’s agricultural products reach out to the world.

Introducing the Yen Chau round mango of Son La Province at an exhibition - photo: Ethnic Minority and Development Newspaper

In the coming time, the province will continue to build material areas meeting domestic market and export demands, strictly manage the technical process of caring, harvesting, preserving, pre-processing, and processing agricultural products, properly manage the areas that have been granted production unit codes and build new areas eligible for these codes, and strictly manage the safe agricultural production process (VietGAP, GlobalGAP). At the same time, the province will attract more investment in building collection facilities with sufficient capacity in terms of cold storage, pre-processing facilities, sorting, packaging and specialized transportation to purchase and sign export contracts.

The Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade is willing to provide information and guidance for Son La’s enterprises to participate in trade promotion activities, helping the province develop brands for key agricultural products, especially GI-certified ones.

According to experts, the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement has opened up many opportunities for Vietnamese agricultural products, as the EU has reduced many tariff lines for fresh fruits and vegetables to zero percent. However, the EU is a discerning market that requires a strict production process and tight control over pesticide residues. With efforts to build brands and produce agricultural products through value chains, Son La is confident of its ability to compete with other rivals in conquering the EU and other discerning markets.