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

Around 80% of Vietnamese agricultural products leave the farm and the port as raw materials, according to data from the WTO and Integration Center. No label, no name, no story. Importers buy by the ton and price by the global commodity market. Then they put their own brand on it before reselling. The largest share of value sits in the name printed on the box, not in the grain of rice or the fruit. 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 well described: a brand is the buyer's perception, not simply a logo or packaging (Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap). Without that perception, a product becomes a pure commodity, and a pure commodity 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) had produced more than 17,000 products certified at 3 stars or above by 2025, including 126 products rated 5 stars. This is a notable effort in standardizing quality. But look at supermarket shelves, trade fairs, TikTok Shop, and an old question remains. Why do so many 4-star and 5-star OCOP products still sit in storage, still sell slowly, and still fail to enter major distribution systems?

The answer is not in quality. A certification tells regulators and judges that the product meets the standard. A brand tells the end buyer whose product this is, where it comes from, and why it is worth choosing. These are two entirely different conversations, with two entirely different audiences.

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

Al Ries & Jack Trout, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

Many cooperatives and household producers invest heavily in earning OCOP stars. But they skip the more important step: building an identity so customers remember, recognize, and actively come back. Without that identity, every sale starts from zero.

The story of origin is a price weapon

Parmigiano-Reggiano is not just cheese. It is a product tied to a specific region of Italy, to a controlled production process, and to a story told over and over for centuries. As a result, it sells for several times the price of similar cheese with no clear origin. The same goes for Café de Colombia. Consumers around the world pay more because that origin story has been built into a consistent, strictly protected brand asset, not only because of superior chemical quality.

Vietnam has plenty of material for similar stories. The problem lies in the translation step: turning the truth about the land, the growers, and the process into specific language and imagery. That language must make buyers in the city or abroad understand, feel, and remember.

Vietnam's middle-class consumers now number about 25 million, according to estimates from multiple sources. They are ready to pay 1.5 to 2 times more for clean food with a clear origin. 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 a wrapping layer. For agricultural products, packaging is the only way for the story to reach the buyer, right at the moment of purchase. There is no salesperson, no introductory video, no storyteller. The packaging has to speak for itself.

There are four layers that need to work together:

• Origin layer: the name of the region, coordinates, the name of the grower or cooperative. Specific enough that it can't be invented. "Cao Lãnh mango, Đồng Tháp, from Mr. Tư Minh's orchard" is stronger than "clean Vietnamese mango" because it can't be copied.
• Pattern layer: a visual language drawn from the culture, terrain, or distinctive character of the region. This must be a brand identity asset of its own, not generic decoration.
• Emotional language layer: a sentence or phrase that touches the reason buyers care. It should be specific, such as describing flavor, harvest season, or how locals use the product, rather than just saying "high quality."
• 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 don't need a large budget to get started. But they do need a strategic decision first: what position this product wants to occupy in the buyer's mind, and who that buyer is.

Lesson from ST25: losing the brand due to not registering

In 2020, ST25 rice won "world's best rice" at the World's Best Rice Contest. The news spread, and the whole country was proud. But almost at the same time, several businesses in the US filed trademark applications for ST25 in that market, before the Vietnamese side could act. This was not one person's carelessness. It reflects a systemic gap: many Vietnamese agricultural products build a reputation at home, but are not protected as intellectual property in export markets.

A geographical indication (GI, a legal label that ties a product to a territory) is a strong protection tool. But it only works when it is registered in the right market and used consistently across packaging, commercial documents, and communication channels. Having a GI at home but not running it as a brand asset means there is still effectively nothing to protect.

The starting point is not a new logo

A common mistake when a cooperative or household producer decides to "build a brand" is to commission a logo first, then print it on packaging, then go to market. This sequence skips the most important question: who is this brand talking to, and what is it saying that they haven't heard elsewhere?

A beautiful logo on an empty strategy is just decoration. It gives buyers no reason to choose this product over another. The real starting point is answering three questions. Who, specifically, is this product for? What makes it different from every similar product in a way that can't be copied? What story sits behind it that is true only for you? Once those three have clear answers, designing the logo or packaging becomes the work of translating that language into consistent imagery. That is design that solves a business problem, not just 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.