The PAN Group’s Vinaseed – 50 years alongside Vietnamese agriculture

Vinaseed Group has launched a new brand name and identity

Established in 1968, the seeds Vinaseed had sown have grown into "stately trees," contributing to the continuous improvement of Vietnamese farmers’ living standards, technical skills, and actual incomes.

Having set the goal to provide high-quality seeds with high productivity and wide adaptation, Vinaseed has been focusing on researching, applying, and transferring technology as well as industrialising the seed industry.

Since equitisation (Stock code: NSC), Vinaseed has considered science and technology as an important tool for enterprise development and competitive advantage enhancement, while investing more than VND300 billion ($13 million) into R&D, opening up brighter and more energetic prospects. Vinaseed became the rising star in the Vietnamese seed sector as the first company in the country to be recognised as a scientific and technological company.

Tran Kim Lien, Vinaseed chairman and general director, announced the new era of Vinaseed as a member of The PAN Group

Starting from a company trading common rice seeds, Vinaseed annually produces and trades 80,000 tonnes of seeds, 80 per cent of which are copyrighted products, equivalent to 2 million hectares of cultivation, holding 20 per cent of the national market. The company has researched, selected, and successfully transferred 45 types of seeds, and they have four varieties among the most common rice seeds in Vietnam.

After 15 years of equitisation, and especially three years after officially becoming a member of The PAN Group, Vinaseed has been advancing by leaps and bounds through several achievements to becoming the largest company of the Vietnamese seed industry as of December 31, 2017. Specifically, its revenue reached VND1.512 trillion($65.7 million), including VND1.2 trillion ($52.17 million) from scientific and technological products. Vinaseed’s after-tax profit hit VND235 billion ($10.22 million), owner’s equity was VND1.06 trillion ($46.09 million), while the average pace of growth in 2011-2017 was 40 per cent per year.

Vinaseed has a nationwide network of 29 members, 1,200 first agencies, and 1,000 employees, 80 per cent of whom have postgraduate qualifications. These figures are a testament to Vinaseed’s growth prospects even after 50 years.

Vinaseed has not only brought science and technology to production and business while transferring new advances to farmers across the nation, but has also contributed to the society and improved farmers’ lives. Through technology transfer and co-operative production all across Vietnam, Vinaseed helped raise "technological villages," improving the lives of thousands of farming households.

Chairman of the Dong-Thap People's Committee handing over the decision approving the investment policy and investment registration certificate for Vinaseed's Industrial Centre

Vinaseed’s Industrial Centre project processing seeds and agricultural products at Thap Muoi village, Dong Thap province is expected to be the largest in scale and the most modern centre for seeds and agricultural products preservation in Vietnam. It will take up 5.2 hectares and process 30,000 tonnes of seeds and 100,000 tonnes of rice per year, with the total investment capital of VND216-230 billion ($9.39-10 million).

New name, new identity

At its 50-year anniversary ceremony, chairwoman and general director of Vinaseed Tran Kim Lien officially announced changing the company’s name to Vietnam National Seed Group (or Vinaseed Group) and launched its new Corporate Identity Programme (CIP). Through this, the company embarked on a new journey to become the leading Vietnamese corporation providing sustainable agricultural development solutions to the international market.

Vinaseed officially changed its name to Vietnam Seed Corporation and launched a new corporate identity

The logo of Vinaseed’s new CIP enlarges the old logo of three rice seeds to nine (as the age-old Vietnamese saying goes, “Rice is gold from the heaven”), implying that the new identity will build and expand on the old one, carrying on old traditions on a grander scale and with more momentum.

The nine seeds are arranged to present the gene chain model, symbolising technology and biodiversity as the core foundations of the group’s development.

The new nine seeds arranged in a square represent Mother Earth (a distinctly Vietnamese symbology based on folklore and local fairy tales) and brings to mind Vietnam’s traditional “banh chung" cake. The green colour implies maturity, solidity, and reliance.

Vinaseed introduces new high-grade VJ Pearl Rice produced with Japanese technology

With its strategy and actions closely aligned with the closed ‘Farm – Food – Family’ value chain of The PAN Group, Vinaseed aims to dominate the Vietnamese plant seed sector and to sustain an average pace of growth at 20-25 per cent per year until 2021.

“Though there will be a lot of challenges in our upcoming journey, we believe that intelligence and scientific-technological competence, strength from solidarity, and the aspiration to only give the best seed products will keep improving living standards in Vietnam,” forecast Vinaseed’s chairman.