From bulk goods to brand: why 80% of Vietnamese agricultural products sell cheaply

About 80% of Vietnamese agricultural products leave the farm and port in raw form, according to data from the WTO Center and Integration. No labels, no names, no stories. Importers buy by the ton, pricing based on the global commodity market, and attach their own brands before reselling. The greatest value does not lie in the rice or fruit but in the name printed on the box. And that name is not Vietnamese.

This is not a quality issue. ST25 rice has won the best rice in the world award. Buon Ma Thuot coffee has had its geographical indication recognized domestically since 2005. Hoa Loc mangoes, Luc Ngan lychees, and Nam Roi grapefruits are all products that discerning buyers are willing to pay more for if they know what they are. The problem is that most do not know, because no one tells them consistently and reliably.

The trap of bulk goods

Bulk goods is a familiar term for products sold by weight, regardless of origin, with no identification. When products enter the market in this form, they are automatically drawn into a competition measured by only one metric: price per kilogram. Buyers have no other basis for differentiation, so they choose the cheaper option. This is not the buyer's fault. It is an inevitable consequence when products cannot explain who they are.

In brand economics, this principle is clearly described: a brand is the "gut feeling" of the buyer, not just a logo or packaging (Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap). When that feeling is absent, the product becomes a pure commodity, and pure commodities can only compete on price.

The gap between those two numbers is the untapped brand value in Vietnamese agriculture.

OCOP is not a brand

The OCOP program (One Commune One Product) has created over 17,000 products certified with three stars or more by 2025, of which 126 products have achieved five stars. This is a commendable effort towards standardizing quality. But looking at supermarket shelves, at fairs, at TikTok Shop, an old question remains: why do many 4-star and 5-star OCOP products still sit unsold, still sell slowly, and still cannot enter large distribution systems?

The answer is not that the quality is insufficient. It is that certification is not branding. Certification tells regulatory bodies and judges that the product meets standards. Branding tells the end buyer who this product belongs to, where it comes from, and why it is worth choosing. These are two entirely different conversations, with two completely different audiences.

Positioning is about occupying a place in the customer's mind, not on a certificate.

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Many cooperatives and production households invest heavily in achieving OCOP stars, but overlook the more important step: building an identity for customers to remember, recognize, and actively seek out. Without that identity, each sale starts from scratch.

The story of origin is a price weapon

Parmigiano-Reggiano is not just cheese. It is a product tied to a specific geographical area in Italy, a controlled production process, and a story that has been told and retold for centuries. As a result, it sells for many times the price of similar cheese without clear origin. The same goes for Café de Colombia. Consumers around the world pay more not because Colombian coffee is chemically superior, but because that origin story has been built into a consistent brand asset and is strictly protected.

Vietnam has enough raw materials for similar stories. The issue lies in the transformation: from the truth about the land, the growers, and the processes, into language and imagery that buyers in the city or abroad can understand, feel, and remember.

Middle-class consumers in Vietnam, currently estimated at around 25 million people from various sources, are willing to pay 1.5 to 2 times more for clean food with clear origins. That demand exists. The question is who will meet it with a brand clear enough to be remembered.

Four layers of packaging tell a story

Packaging is not just an outer layer of paper. For agricultural products, packaging is the only means for the story to reach the buyer at the point of purchase, when there are no sales staff, no introduction videos, and no narrators. Packaging must speak for itself.

There are four layers that need to work together:

• Origin layer: name of the region, coordinates, name of the grower or cooperative. Specific enough to be unforgeable. "Cao Lanh sand mangoes, Dong Thap, from Mr. Tu Minh's garden" is stronger than "clean mangoes from Vietnam" because it cannot be replicated.
• Pattern layer: visual language drawn from culture, geography, or characteristics of that land. Not generic decoration but a unique identity asset.
• Emotional language layer: a sentence or phrase that touches on the reasons the buyer cares. Not "high quality" but a more specific statement, such as describing the flavor, harvest season, or how locals use that product.
• Material layer: paper, bags, boxes, all send signals about positioning. Cheap materials with an expensive story create a contradiction that buyers can sense even if they cannot articulate it.

These four layers do not require a large budget to implement initially, but they do require a strategic decision first: what position does this product want to occupy in the buyer's mind, and who is that buyer?

Lesson from ST25: losing the brand due to not registering

In 2020, ST25 rice won the "best rice in the world" award at the World's Best Rice Contest. The news spread, and the whole country felt proud. But almost simultaneously, many businesses in the U.S. filed for the ST25 trademark in that market before Vietnam could take action. This story is not about the carelessness of an individual. It reflects a systemic gap: many Vietnamese agricultural products have built a reputation domestically but are not protected as intellectual property in export markets.

Geographical indications (GI) are a strong protection tool, but they only take effect when registered in the right market and used consistently on packaging, commercial documents, and communication channels. Having a geographical indication domestically but not operating it as a brand asset is essentially having nothing to protect.

The starting point is not a new logo

A common mistake when a cooperative or production household decides to "brand" is to order a logo design first, then print it on packaging, and finally launch it to the market. This sequence overlooks the most important question: who is this brand communicating with, and what is it saying that they haven't heard elsewhere?

A beautiful logo on an empty strategy is merely decoration. It does not create a reason for buyers to choose this product over another. The real starting point is to answer three questions: who is this product specifically for, what makes it different from all similar products in a way that cannot be replicated, and what story behind it is uniquely ours. When these three questions have clear answers, designing a logo or packaging becomes the task of transforming that language into a consistent visual identity. That is what design that solves business problems looks like, not mere decoration.

Vietnamese agricultural products are of high quality. The only thing missing is a system to bring that story to the hands of those who are willing to pay for it.