HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Registering for and protecting geographicalindication (GI) for Vietnamese specialities are needed to protect, add value tounique products and promote their exports, experts have said.

Delphine Marie-Vivien, a researcher in intellectual property and food law atCIRAD, a French research centre specialising in international agricultural anddevelopment issues, said: “The origin of food is important for consumers, whovalue tradition and cultural identity, are sensitive to specific sensorial andorganoleptic characteristics of these products. Some consumers are willing topay more to find such characteristics in the products.”

Vu Kim Hanh, Chairwoman of the High Quality Vietnamese Product BusinessAssociation, said GI could add value, increase access to new or existingmarkets, gain a competitive advantage, and reap more profits.

She gave the example of Cambodia’s Kampot pepper.

“Cambodia is a less developed country compared to us [Vietnam], but its pepperis sold at five times the price of our pepper since they have developedgeographical indication for Kampot pepper.”

After obtaining GI protection for the product, Cambodia has done very well topromote and exploit the pepper in both local and international markets, shesaid.

“Kampot today is not only a place for people coming to buy pepper, but also anattractive tourism destination globally.”

According to the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam, by theend of last year, Vietnam had a total of 69 GIs.

Most of the Vietnamese GIs currently are for agriculture products such asfruits and seafood, processed products such as fish sauce, rice and handicrafts.

The prices of protected GIs products have gone up by 20-100 percent, it said.

Hanh said Vietnam has many unique agricultural products that should beregistered for GI protection, but the actual number is modest.

Because of the lack of official registration, foreign producers illegally usedVietnam’s GI, she said, citing the example of Thai fish-sauce producers soldproducts with a phony Phu Quoc name in Europe.

“In the context of international competition, you must know how to protect yourassets.”

GI also helps fight against misuse or unhealthy competition, she said.

But even in the case of products which has already obtained GI certification, Vietnamhas failed to tap the benefits, she said.

Talking about challenges of GI in Vietnam, Marie-Vivien said despite thepolitical will to promote GI, there is still “little use of GI in practice inthe market” due to a lack of awareness among producers and consumers and a lackof interest among local stakeholders.

Other issues include “lax implementation of quality control and lack ofefficient collective action to manage GI.”

Hanh said there is little involvement by relevant authorities in the promotionof GI and GI products.

Marie-Vivien said it is necessary to improve awareness among producers andconsumers through communications strategies and exhibitions of GI products.

Besides, strengthening collaboration between producers after GI registrationand implementing “efficient control systems before commercialisation andefficient repression of frauds on the market” are needed, she said.

Hanh said: “Obtaining GIs was an initial advantage to producers. But theyshould pay more attention to ensuring product quality and innovation to addmore value to their products to gain an advantage.”-VNS/VNA