Vietnamese premium rice enters Canadian market

KD Trading, a logistic company run by two Vietnamese-Canadians, has become the sole partner to distribute ST25 rice (Mr. Cua's rice) in the Canadian market.

The ST25 rice was awarded the prize “World’s Best Rice” in 2019 and 2023.

KD Trading CEO Kevin Le said that to import Vietnam's ST25 rice into Canada, the company conducted a very thorough market survey and developed specific and long-term competitive strategies for ST25 rice to be accepted in the market.

Vietnamese Trade Counsellor in Canada Tran Thu Quynh said that the Trade Office highly appreciates the role of overseas Vietnamese enterprises in bringing Vietnamese rice products to the Canadian market.

She said that previously, enterprises just focused on importing rice with modest quality to Canada.

However, overseas Vietnamese have been making efforts to bring high-quality, branded rice products such as ST25 to this market.

Canada is a fairly large rice consuming market, with an import demand of about 500,000 tonnes per year. The country also has strict requirements on rice quality.

Quynh noted that it is necessary to have the coordination of all parties, including the trade office, exporters, importers and distributors to ensure quality of the imported rice.

In the first half of this year, Canada spent more than $207 million on importing rice, an increase of 5% over the same period in 2023.

Vietnam currently ranks in the top five rice exporters to Canada with an export turnover of about $6.5 million.