Vietnam has been honored for the first time with the highest award at the annual World’s Best Rice competition.
Organized by The Rice Trader, a publication providing in-depth analysis of the global rice industry, the contest was one of the key events at the 11th World Rice Conference in Manila, the Philippines from November 10 to 13.
The World Rice Conference is an annual gathering of commercial and professional rice industry participants, including business leaders, decision-makers, and the research community.
At this year’s World’s Best Rice contest, Vietnamese premium fragrant rice ST25 was named the best rice variety in the world.
This is the first time Vietnam has won the competition’s top award.
Thailand has won the world’s best rice title for five times, followed by Cambodia with four awards, the United States with two, and Myanmar with one.
In some years, two countries were named the co-winners of the title.
The winning rice was selected by a group of international chefs, who examined the look and smell of the rice as well as its taste when properly cooked.
Vietnam’s ST rice varieties have been bred and improved by local agricultural engineer Ho Quang Cua for more than 20 years.
In 2017, Vietnam’s ST24 rice was in the top three of the World’s Best Rice contest in Macau, China.
CVD 