ABSTRACT
The Vietnamese are beginning to feel the negative effects of the accelerated economic growth that has been taking place in their country over the last 20 years, and its impact on agricultural prices, the environment and human health (Dao The Anh et al., 2003). Because of this, researchers and policy-makers from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) are becoming increasingly interested in establishing quality value chains. There has been a switch from a production economy, which was inherited from the collectivist period, to a quality-based economy with niches based on product differentiation. The identity of the product and its uniqueness and reputation are now valued as much as the formerly more important economies of scale (Allaire, 2002). Using intellectual property concepts, such as trademarks and geographical indications, these local products can be differentiated from bulk production and provide protection for the producers, who are also custodians of the genetic resources on which the product is based.
