Vietnam's most famous grain just added another line to its trophy cabinet. On October 9, in Manila, ST25 — sold under the "Gạo Ông Cua" brand — took second place at the World's Best Rice 2026 contest, edged out only by Myanmar's entry. The Philippines, as host, claimed third, while India and Thailand shared fourth. The judging, run during the annual World Rice Conference organised by US publication The Rice Trader, had international master chefs and food scientists scoring both raw and cooked samples on grain uniformity, length, aroma, tenderness and taste.

If second sounds modest, consider the history: ST25 won the whole competition in Manila in 2019, again in the Philippines in 2023, and shared first place with Cambodia's fragrant rice in Phnom Penh in 2025. Its predecessor, ST24, made the top three in Macau back in 2017. Few agricultural products anywhere have dominated a global category this consistently.

The rice is the life's work of agricultural engineer Ho Quang Cua, who spent more than three decades breeding the ST fragrant rice line. It's grown mainly in the Mekong Delta's rice-shrimp farming zones — a rotation system that's genuinely sustainable, alternating crops with aquaculture on the same land. The commercial brand is run by the Ho Quang Tri Private Enterprise, and the trademark is protected in Vietnam, the US, UK, EU, Australia and Hong Kong, which is why you'll now find the grain on shelves in international supermarket chains.

Demand is pushing expansion fast. Around 35,000 hectares of the Delta are planted with ST25, concentrated in Can Tho, An Giang and Ca Mau, and acreage keeps growing to serve exports to Europe, the US and Japan. Farmgate prices run consistently above other premium paddy varieties, so it's become a genuine rural success story, not just a competition winner.

For travellers, this is a good excuse to look beyond pho and banh mi. The Mekong Delta — Vietnam's rice bowl — is an easy side trip from Ho Chi Minh City, and food-focused visitors can taste ST25 at its source: in steaming bowls of com tam, claypot rice, or simply paired with a Delta catfish dish. Can Tho's Cai Rang floating market, the orchards around Ben Tre and the shrimp-rice paddies of Ca Mau all sit within this same farming landscape. Knowing which grain is in your bowl, and why chefs rate it among the world's best, adds a satisfying layer to any Delta trip.

Story credit: Vietnam Insider.