Appendix R1
R1. Open questions register
All 376 open questions left by the research, grouped by topic, with why each matters, the cheapest way to close it, who to ask, and its status. The twenty priorities are ranked in chapter 30.
On this page
- Protein economy and feed (15)
- Feedstocks (9)
- Process note (2)
- Industrial capacity (7)
- Companies and ecosystem (13)
- Regulation (14)
- Research capacity (11)
- Capital (11)
- Regional position (8)
- Costs (11)
- Formulation and retail (7)
- Science (7)
- Feed market (3)
- Geography, institutions and outlook (6)
- Infrastructure and talent (3)
- Futures 2030 to 2050 (28)
- Demand side, v0.3 (114)
- Actor check and expansion waves, v0.4 (107)
This register lists every question the research could not close. It is generated from open_questions.csv, which also holds the source notes each question came from. The twenty questions that matter most, with the play each unblocks, are ranked in Unknowns; their rank appears in the "Priority" column below. Version 0.2 adds the questions left by the futures round (OQ-128 onwards, topic "futures 2030 to 2050"); the most important are summarised in Robust moves. Version 0.4 adds the questions left by the actor check and expansion waves 7 to 9 (OQ-270 to OQ-376; see M4. Actor check and waves) and updates the status of several demand questions. Version 0.3 adds the questions left by the demand round (OQ-156 onwards, topics beginning "demand"), with the priority each research stream gave them (High, Medium or Low); the ones that most change Part III are discussed in Demand to frontier.
Status: 341 open; 31 partly closed; 4 closed.
Readers who can answer any of these are invited to contact AltProtein Vietnam; closed questions will be dated in the data file.
Protein economy and feed (15)
| ID | Priority | Question | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-001 | Fishmeal: domestic production, imports and domestic prices, 2023 to 2026. | Get Vietnam Customs HS 2301.20 data through ITC Trade Map, or ask the Vietnam Animal Feed Association (VAFA, Hiep hoi Thuc an chan nuoi Viet Nam) or VASEP (for pangasius by-product meal). | ask the Vietnam Feed Association or AgroMonitor for their weekly feed-ingredient bulletin, or phone two fishmeal plants in An Giang (former Kien Giang) or Ca Mau. | Kien Giang and Ca Mau fishmeal plants; AgroMonitor weekly feed report; Vietnam Customs HS 2301.20 by month (the customs statistics portal). | Ask the Department of Livestock Production and Veterinary (MAE) for the feed facility registry, and VASEP for by-product fishmeal plants. | Vietnam Customs; ITC Trade Map; Vietnam Animal Feed Association; VAFA; VASEP; Vietnam Feed Association; AgroMonitor; MAE | partly closed | |
| OQ-002 | 5 | Vietnam-specific fishmeal inclusion rates by species. | One call each to the technical managers at Uni-President Vietnam, Sheng Long and Grobest, or ask the Research Institute for Aquaculture No. 2 (RIA2). | Call the technical managers of Sheng Long, Uni-President Vietnam or Grobest (shrimp) and Vinh Hoan feed division (pangasius). Or ask the Vietnam Feed Association. | Uni-President; Sheng Long; Grobest; Research Institute for Aquaculture No. 2; RIA2; Vinh Hoan; Vietnam Feed Association | open |
| OQ-003 | 11 | Official aquafeed output by species. | MAE's Department of Fisheries and Fisheries Surveillance publishes an annual review; request the feed chapter. | MAE's Department of Fisheries | open |
| OQ-004 | Per-person consumption of fish, milk and meat by type, on a consumption basis. | Use the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey (NSO) and FAOSTAT food balance sheets. The FAOSTAT site could not be read by automated tools. | NSO; FAOSTAT | open | |
| OQ-005 | OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2025-2034 projections for Vietnam (meat, fish, feed to 2034). | The OECD site blocked automated access. Download the data from the OECD Data Explorer manually. | OECD Data Explorer (AGR_OUTLOOK dataset, country VNM) or the USDA ERS International Baseline country tables. | OECD; USDA ERS | open | |
| OQ-006 | Latest GHG inventory (first Biennial Transparency Report) and NDC 3.0 (2025). | Check the UNFCCC submissions page. | UNFCCC NDC registry (unfccc.int/NDCREG) or the MAE Department of Climate Change. | UNFCCC; MAE Department of Climate Change | open | |
| OQ-007 | Decision 300/QD-TTg (2023), the methane action plan, and any 2025/2026 directives on feed raw materials. | Read the full texts on thuvienphapluat.vn. | open | ||
| OQ-008 | Current FDI market share and volume-based rankings of feed mills. | VAFA, or Vietnam Report's full ranking report. | VAFA; Vietnam Report | open | |
| OQ-009 | Meat and offal imports in 2025 (volume and value); seafood export volume in 2025. | Customs annual bulletin; VASEP annual report. | VASEP | open | |
| OQ-010 | Import values for soybean meal and DDGS separately. | Customs HS 2304 and 2303 detail (ITC Trade Map). | ITC Trade Map | open | |
| OQ-011 | Share of feed in shrimp production cost. | Shrimp farm cost surveys (Can Tho University; VASEP). | Can Tho University; VASEP | partly closed | |
| OQ-012 | Livestock waste volume and treatment rates. | MAE environment reports; the national state-of-environment report. | MAE | open | |
| OQ-013 | An official feed price index for 2021 to 2023 (the 2022 spike). | NSO producer and consumer price sub-indices for animal feed. | NSO | open | |
| OQ-014 | FDI in food processing. | The foreign investment agency now under MOF (formerly MPI) publishes FDI by sector. Check whether food and beverage is broken out. | MOF | open | |
| OQ-127 | 12 | Does the Decision 1520/QD-TTg target of 30 to 32 Mt of industrial feed by 2030 cover livestock and poultry feed only, or also aquafeed? | Ask the MAE Department of Livestock Production and Animal Health which feed statistics are used to monitor the target. | MAE DLPAH | partly closed |
Feedstocks (9)
| ID | Priority | Question | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-015 | 9 | Cassava pulp gate price, and the split between wet sale, drying, biogas and dumping. | Call 3 to 5 Tay Ninh factories (for example Dinh Khue; Hung Duy Group) and the Son La Starch Factory. The Vietnam Cassava Association (hiephoisanvietnam.org.vn) publishes weekly market bulletins; its site failed on a TLS certificate error in this session, so read it in a browser. | Vietnam Cassava Association | open |
| OQ-016 | National starch output, including domestic use, not just exports. | Sources: MOIT industrial statistics, NSO "sản phẩm công nghiệp chủ yếu" tables, or the Vietnam Cassava Association. | MOIT; NSO; Vietnam Cassava Association | open | |
| OQ-017 | Beer volume for 2024/2025 and brewery-gate BSG prices. | Sources: NSO industrial output ("bia các loại"), the Vietnam Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Association (VBA), and the Heineken Vietnam and Sabeco sustainability or annual reports. Ask Entobel directly about its feedstock. | NSO; VBA; Heineken Vietnam; Sabeco; Entobel | open | |
| OQ-018 | Molasses volume, flows and bulk price. | Sources: VSSA, and the TTC AgriS (SBT) and QNS annual reports (by-product revenue lines), plus MSG and yeast buyers (Vedan, Ajinomoto). | VSSA; TTC AgriS; QNS; Vedan; Ajinomoto | open | |
| OQ-019 | Broken rice volume and uses. | Vietnam Food Association (VFA). | Vietnam Food Association; VFA | open | |
| OQ-020 | Seafood by-product volume and use. | VASEP; annual reports of Vinh Hoan and other pangasius exporters (collagen, gelatin and fishmeal lines). | VASEP; Vinh Hoan | open | |
| OQ-021 | Seaweed, spirulina, mushrooms. | MAE Fisheries and Crop Production departments; thuvienphapluat.vn for the seaweed development scheme to 2030; Vinh Hao Mineral Water Company for spirulina. | MAE; Vinh Hao | open | |
| OQ-022 | Coffee and cashew. | The USDA Coffee Annual (fas.usda.gov returned 403 in this session; try the apps.fas.usda.gov GAIN API filename), VICOFA, VINACAS. | USDA; VICOFA; VINACAS | open | |
| OQ-023 | Soybean crushers and okara. | Vietnam Feed Association for crusher names and capacities; Vinasoy for okara volumes. | Ask the Vietnam Feed Association, or read the USDA GAIN Oilseeds Annual for 2026. | Vietnam Feed Association; Vinasoy; USDA | partly closed |
Process note (2)
| ID | Priority | Question | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-024 | Process note: the session's web-search budget ran out part-way through this wave. Items 5 to 11 were not searched on the open web at all. They should be the first searches in wave 2. | open | |||
| OQ-080 | Pages that could not be read this wave: - Manila Times, ScaleUp Bio release (HTTP 429 rate limit; the PR Newswire copy was read instead) - Straits Times, China "new proteins" (site blocked) - Lexology, Thailand article (HTTP 403) - BBGI notice PDF (no content returned) - Cell AgriTech and Malaysia FSQD sites (DNS failure) - UN Comtrade API (binary response) - WITS Vietnam cashew exports (server error) - Web search budget exhausted early in the session. | open |
Industrial capacity (7)
| ID | Priority | Question | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-025 | Vedan's current MSG, lysine and fermentation capacity (tank count). | Read Vedan International's 2024 or 2025 annual report on hkexnews.hk (stock code 2317), and Vedan's EIA or environmental permit on thamvan.mae.gov.vn (the site failed to load for us). | HKEX filings do not disclose them. Read Vedan's environmental permit on the MAE portal, or ask Vedan's Starch Derivatives R&D team directly. | Vedan; MAE | partly closed | |
| OQ-026 | 4 | Whether any incumbent will toll-ferment. | Direct inquiry to Vedan's Starch Derivatives R&D department and to Ajinomoto Vietnam's corporate planning team. Ask about the 700 m3 tanks and their idle time. | Vedan; Ajinomoto | open |
| OQ-027 | Pilot fermentation access. | Call the SHTP Biotech Center, the HCMC Biotechnology Center and FIRI's experimental production centre. Ask for vessel sizes, food-grade status and startup pricing. | phone or email FIRI FTET and the HCMC Biotechnology Center with a one-page equipment questionnaire; ask MOST for its list of national key laboratories. | Send a one-page questionnaire to FIRI FTET (production@firi.vn), the HCMC Biotechnology Center (ttcnsh.shtp@tphcm.gov.vn) and SHTP Labs (ttrd.shtp@tphcm.gov.vn). | SHTP; HCMC Biotechnology Center; FIRI; MOST | partly closed | |
| OQ-028 | Citric acid, enzymes, threonine, methionine. | Check customs import data for 2024-2025 and the Vietnam Chemicals Agency plant list. | customs; Vietnam Chemicals Agency | open | |
| OQ-029 | Hi-tech agriculture zones, Hoa Lac, Da Nang Hi-Tech Park, and university pilot plants. | Read the park websites and the Prime Minister's decisions (e.g., on hi-tech agriculture zone planning) on thuvienphapluat.vn. Pass to the R&D and ecosystem agents. | Try other official domains, or the Da Nang People's Committee portal. | Da Nang People's Committee | partly closed | |
| OQ-030 | Current status of the AB Mauri La Nga plant after the 2019 suspension. | Ask the Dong Nai Department of Agriculture and Environment, or AB Mauri directly. | Dong Nai Department of Agriculture and Environment; AB Mauri | open | |
| OQ-031 | Local stainless fermenter and food-machinery fabricators. | Talk to the Vietnam Mechanical Enterprises Association and to engineering firms that built the Vedan and Ajinomoto expansions. | Check the national business registry (dangkykinhdoanh.gov.vn) for Buhler, GEA, Alfa Laval and Famsun entities, or ask vendors' Singapore offices. | Vietnam Mechanical Enterprises Association; Vedan; Ajinomoto; dangkykinhdoanh.gov.vn; Buhler; Famsun | open |
Companies and ecosystem (13)
| ID | Priority | Question | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-032 | Chay tonnage and protein inputs by manufacturer. | Call VISSAN, CJ Foods Vietnam, SG Food, Au Lac and Thoai An. Also check the General Statistics Office (now NSO) enterprise census for the relevant product codes. | Look up each brand's manufacturer on its product labels (the field photos exist), then check the Ministry of Health / VFA self-declaration database and company registration. | Not established; would need retailer data (Saigon Co.op, WinCommerce) or a market-research purchase. | VISSAN; CJ Foods Vietnam; SG Food; Au Lac; Thoai An; NSO; VFA; Saigon Co.op; WinCommerce | open | |
| OQ-033 | 8 | TVP, soy protein isolate and wheat gluten import volumes (HS 2106.10, 3504, 1109). | Check Vietnam Customs statistics or trade-data services (ImportGenius, Panjiva). | Vietnam Customs (GDVC) statistics, or one call to a major importer or distributor. | Vietnam Customs | partly closed |
| OQ-034 | 6 | Chinese SCP import volumes and manufacturers. | Check customs HS 2309 and 2102 lines; call CK Vietnam / V-Group. | Ask V-Group / CK Vietnam for a quote; check customs lines HS 2309.90 and 2102.20. | customs; CK Vietnam; V-Group | open |
| OQ-035 | Cricket One status in 2025 and 2026. | Check LinkedIn or call the company, and check the Dong Nai business registry. | Not reached this wave. A phone check or site visit is cheapest. | LinkedIn; Dong Nai business registry | open | |
| OQ-036 | Brief leads not found: Song Huong Foods, LC Foods, Hue One Food, Tan Nhat Huong chay, Deep Blue Island, Hat Viet, Zhenmeat, "Unconventional". | A new search round with a fresh search budget should close these. | open | ||
| OQ-037 | The 2 Vietnamese companies in GFI's database. | Email GFI APAC or download the public spreadsheet. | Email GFI APAC or download the database spreadsheet. | GFI APAC | partly closed | |
| OQ-038 | NGO and event ecosystem (HSI Forward Food trainings, ProVeg, vegetarian associations, plant-based expos, university startup contests): not covered. | Needs a new search round. | open | ||
| OQ-039 | Duckweed, seaweed and koji actors: not covered beyond absence. | Check Can Tho University, Nha Trang University (seaweed) and FiBL. | Can Tho University and Nong Lam University animal-science groups. | Can Tho University; FiBL; Nong Lam University | open | |
| OQ-040 | Status of the Minh Phu-UMAMI (ex-Shiok) MOU. | Check Minh Phu investor relations or annual reports for 2023 to 2025. | Minh Phu | partly closed | |
| OQ-117 | Which Vietnamese mills came with CJ Feed & Care, and whether the 21 De Heus plants include them. | Ask De Heus Vietnam communications. | De Heus | open | |
| OQ-118 | Plant lists for VISSAN, CJ Foods Vietnam and Ajinomoto. | Read their 2025 annual or sustainability reports (VISSAN publishes to UPCoM). | VISSAN | open | |
| OQ-119 | Vinasoy 2025 capacity and soybean origin. | Read the QNS 2025 annual report (UPCoM filing). | QNS | open | |
| OQ-120 | Skretting's H-Meal inclusion rate and volumes. | Ask Skretting Vietnam or Entobel. | Skretting; Entobel | open |
Regulation (14)
| ID | Priority | Question | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-041 | 1 | Full text of the draft Food Safety Law (Aug 2026 version). Does any article define new food, new technology food or new ingredients? | download from the National Assembly draft portal (duthaoonline.quochoi.vn) or the WTO SPS notification G/SPS/N/VNM/187 attachment; or ask the VFA Legal Division. | the WTO SPS notification attachment downloaded by hand from docs.wto.org, or a request to the VFA Legal Division or the National Assembly Committee on Science, Technology and Environment. | WTO; VFA Legal Division; National Assembly Committee on Science, Technology and Environment | partly closed |
| OQ-042 | 2 | Do purified PF proteins need a GMO food-use certificate, beyond labelling? What is the timeline for the Art 37a closed-production certificate? | written question to the MAE Department of Nature Conservation and Biodiversity and to VFA. Read the Decree 43/2026 appendix forms (e.g. form 25 on thuvienphapluat). | a joint written question to MAE and VFA. | MAE Department of Nature Conservation and Biodiversity; VFA | open |
| OQ-043 | 3 | Aquafeed permitted list, raw-material section (Circular 16/2026/TT-BNNMT Appendix II). Are insect meal, yeast, SCP, algae or duckweed listed? | download the Circular PDF from vanban.chinhphu.vn, or call DFFI. | a written question to DFFI (Cục Thủy sản và Kiểm ngư, aquafeed division). | DFFI | partly closed |
| OQ-044 | Is Circular 21/2019 Appendix VI still the livestock list after Circular 94/2025 and Law 146/2025? When was the last annual update? | DLPAH (Cục Chăn nuôi và Thú y) feed division; check the MAE feed information portal. | DLPAH feed division. | DLPAH; MAE | partly closed | |
| OQ-045 | Registrations of Entobel, yeast-protein and any SCP products on the DLPAH and DFFI portals. | query the MAE feed portal by company name; ask Entobel. | MAE; Entobel | open | |
| OQ-046 | Which body approves a controlled-testing sandbox (Law 93/2025 Art 21) for a food product? Is there an implementing decree? | MOST Legal Department; check decrees guiding Law 93/2025 issued in late 2025 and 2026. | reading Resolution 29/2025/NQ-HĐND in full; a call to the Hanoi Department of Science and Technology. | MOST Legal Department; Hanoi Department of Science and Technology | partly closed | |
| OQ-047 | EIA thresholds for fermentation, food and feed plants (Decree 08/2022 Appendix II to V as amended by 05/2025 and 48/2026). | download the appendices PDF; ask an environmental consultant. | the Decree 08/2022 and 05/2025 appendix PDFs from vanban.chinhphu.vn, or an environmental consultant. | environmental consultant | open | |
| OQ-048 | Decree 320/2025/ND-CP (CIT guidance): exact criteria for "projects applying high technology" and agricultural processing incentives. | read the decree; one call to a tax adviser. | the official PDF, or one call to a tax adviser. | tax adviser | partly closed | |
| OQ-049 | Allergen labelling specifics and any draft rules on plant-based naming. | read Circular 05/2019/TT-BKHCN and the draft law's labelling chapter. | partly closed | ||
| OQ-050 | ASEAN novel-food work (ACCSQ PFPWG), Codex NFPS status, and current Thai and Korean rules. | GFI APAC regulatory team; ASEAN Secretariat food safety unit; Thai FDA. | GFI APAC regulatory team; the Thai FDA Food Division. | Check the MFDS temporary standards list or ask GFI Korea. | Read the USDA GAIN Thailand FAIRS report or ask Thai FDA. | GFI APAC; ASEAN Secretariat; Thai FDA; MFDS; GFI Korea; USDA | partly closed | |
| OQ-051 | Delivery status of Resolution 189/NQ-CP tasks II.2 and II.3 (biotech "outstanding mechanisms", biotech product standards). | MOST Department of S&T for Economic-Technical Sectors; MAE Department of S&T. | MOST Department of S&T for Economic-Technical Sectors; MAE Department of S&T | open | |
| OQ-052 | 20 | Halal acceptance of fermentation-derived ingredients made in Vietnam, and recognition by JAKIM and BPJPH. | HALCERT (under MOST) and a Malaysian certifier. | HALCERT; MOST | open |
| OQ-106 | Closed-production certificate: time limit, fee, validity, issuing level. | the full Decision 375/QĐ-BNNMT (PDF on vanban.chinhphu.vn or the national public service portal dichvucong.gov.vn), or a call to the MAE Department of Nature Conservation and Biodiversity. | written question to the MAE Department of Nature Conservation and Biodiversity and to VFA. Read the Decree 43/2026 appendix forms (e.g. form 25 on thuvienphapluat). | MAE Department of Nature Conservation and Biodiversity; VFA | partly closed | |
| OQ-107 | 2026 MFN, ATIGA and ACFTA rates line by line; HS classification of SCP and precision-fermented proteins. | the customs tariff lookup on customs.gov.vn; an advance classification ruling from the General Department of Customs. | General Department of Customs | open |
Research capacity (11)
| ID | Priority | Question | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-053 | Annual graduates in food technology, biotechnology and aquaculture. | sum programme quotas from the 2025-2026 Đề án tuyển sinh of about 12 universities, or ask MOET. | MOET's admissions portal data, or each university's đề án PDF. The HUST, HCMUT, Nong Lam, NTU and IUH pages showed no numbers or failed. | MOET | partly closed | |
| OQ-054 | NAFOSTED and VINIF grant sizes and 2026 calls. | the latest NAFOSTED call notice and funding-norm circular; the VINIF annual report or programme pages in Vietnamese. | NAFOSTED; VINIF | open | |
| OQ-055 | RIA1, RIA2 and RIA3 aquafeed alternative-protein trials (invisible in Scite). | search the Vietnamese-language fisheries journals, or call the RIA2 nutrition department. | RIA2 | open | |
| OQ-056 | Vietnamese researchers abroad in alternative protein. | ORCID and LinkedIn searches for Vietnamese names at Wageningen, NUS/ASTAR, Massey, Ghent, UC Davis and Tufts. Also ask GFI APAC and the Vietnam Innovation Network (NIC). | LinkedIn; GFI APAC; Vietnam Innovation Network; NIC | open | |
| OQ-057 | Current Vietnamese SATREPS, KOICA and Horizon Europe projects. | JST project list (Asia/Vietnam page), the KOICA Vietnam office, the EU CORDIS search. | JST; KOICA; EU CORDIS | open | |
| OQ-058 | Confirmation of probable institution attributions in publications.csv (44 rows marked Medium). | OpenAlex institution IDs, or read the paper headers. | OpenAlex | open | |
| OQ-059 | Resolution 57 and 36 targets and the MAE/MOIT biotech programme decision numbers. | thuvienphapluat.vn or vanban.chinhphu.vn. | open | ||
| OQ-060 | Any cultivated-meat or precision-fermentation lab activity in Vietnam not in journals (startups, hackathons). | GFI APAC Vietnam contacts; the startup map from the ecosystem agent. | GFI APAC | open | |
| OQ-124 | An OpenAlex run is still needed for the institution top 10, the international co-authorship share, year trends for the large topics, and China and South Korea as scale references. | get a free OpenAlex API key (developers.openalex.org) and run biblio_openalex_rerun_urls.txt. This needs about 100 calls, well inside the free USD 1 per day budget. | OpenAlex | open | |
| OQ-125 | Vietnamese-language journals (VJST, Can Tho University Journal, VNUA journals) are only partly indexed. | ask NAFOSTED or the Vietnam Citation Index (VCI) team for topic counts. | NAFOSTED; Vietnam Citation Index | open | |
| OQ-126 | GFI grants | re-check https://gfi.org/researchgrants/ for Vietnamese grantees in the 2025 to 2026 cycles. | open |
Capital (11)
| ID | Priority | Question | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-061 | H1 2026 Vietnam VC and agritech totals. | Ask Do Ventures or VPCA for mid-year data, or use a DealStreetAsia "Vietnam Deal Review" subscription. | Do Ventures; VPCA; DealStreetAsia | open | |
| OQ-062 | DFIs other than IFC, Proparco and ADB (FMO, DEG, BII, JICA PSIF, KfW, Finnfund, Norfund) in Vietnamese agrifood. | Query each DFI's project disclosure portal filtered for Vietnam and agribusiness (one hour of desk work, now blocked by the search cap). | open | ||
| OQ-063 | CJ and Cau Tre (2016) and Masan and De Heus (feed divestment): date, stake, price, multiple. | Check HNX/UPCoM filings (Cau Tre; Masan MEATLife, ticker MML) and the CJ and De Heus annual reports. | check HOSE/UPCoM filings. | Check CJ CheilJedang press releases and the Vietnamese business registry (masothue / National Business Registration Portal); read the can label. | Check CJ CheilJedang's 2016 disclosures on Korea's DART system, or the Cau Tre shareholder filings. | Masan; De Heus; CJ CheilJedang; DART | partly closed | |
| OQ-064 | Food M&A multiples in Vietnam. | Ask VPCA or Mekong Capital; PitchBook or Mergermarket comps. | VPCA; Mekong Capital; PitchBook; Mergermarket | open | |
| OQ-065 | Vietnamese aquaculture-tech, feed-tech, microalgae and plant-based dairy startup deals. | Pull a Tracxn or PitchBook sector list for Vietnam; ask GFI APAC for its company database entries for Vietnam. | Tracxn; PitchBook; GFI APAC | open | |
| OQ-066 | Entobel's financing after 2023 (debt, any Series C, new plants) and whether the IFC USD 10M proposal was cancelled. | Check the IFC disclosure portal (projects 45769 and 46903) and ask Entobel directly. | Look it up in the IFC project search directly (the site is JavaScript-only and not readable here). | IFC; Entobel | partly closed | |
| OQ-067 | Did Mavin's USD 90.6M IFC package close? | Check the IFC disclosure portal. | IFC | open | |
| OQ-068 | APAC alt-protein investment totals, 2023 to 2025. | Download the GFI APAC State of the Industry reports (behind a form). | GFI APAC | open | |
| OQ-069 | Thai Union Ventures, CPF, Wilmar and ADM Ventures activity in Vietnam. | Check company annual reports. | open | ||
| OQ-070 | NIC, SIHUB, Vietnam Silicon Valley, BK Holdings and university incubator programmes for food and biotech in 2026. | Call NIC (under MOST, after the MOST and MIC merger) and SIHUB directly. | NIC; MOST; SIHUB | open | |
| OQ-071 | Navigation Fund alt-protein policy RFP: could not be located. | Email the Navigation Fund. | Navigation Fund | open |
Regional position (8)
| ID | Priority | Question | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-072 | BBGI termination notice (22 Sep 2026). Which plant, why, and does it affect Aleph's Thai plant? | Read the SET filing on set.or.th or email BBGI Investor Relations. | BBGI | open | |
| OQ-073 | 16 | ScaleUp Bio 2026: current capacity, food share of work, pricing, whether Nurasa exited, and willingness to take Vietnamese clients. | Email ScaleUp Bio business development. | ScaleUp Bio | open |
| OQ-074 | 17 | EECi pilot plant: food-grade (GMP, HACCP) status, fees, foreign-client terms. | Email the EECi contacts listed on the pilot plant page. | EECi | open |
| OQ-075 | Malaysia: text of the novel food provision and approval list. | Read the MOH FSQD novel food guideline (site was unreachable). | MOH; FSQD | open | |
| OQ-076 | China: NHC approval dates for Fushine and Angel Yeast; MARA new feed ingredient certificates; capacities of methanol, ethanol and gas-based SCP makers (for example CAP producers). | Ask the GFI APAC China team or read MARA and NHC announcements. | Beijing Shougang LanzaTech and Calysseo investor materials; GFI APAC China team. | Read the MARA notice on moa.gov.cn directly (numeric targets not verified this wave). | GFI APAC; MARA; NHC; Beijing Shougang LanzaTech; Calysseo | open | |
| OQ-077 | Hawkwood's unnamed Vietnamese "large-scale biomanufacturing facility" and its sugar data sources. | Email the authors (Morton, Powell, Day). | Morton, Powell, Day | open | |
| OQ-078 | 15 | Can a product made in Vietnam be exported to Singapore under an SFA approval? | Check SFA's import and overseas-establishment rules for novel foods. | SFA | open |
| OQ-079 | Singapore fees and statutory timelines under the FSSA. | Read the FSSA (Authorisations, Administration) Regulations 2025, Second Schedule. | open |
Costs (11)
| ID | Priority | Question | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-081 | 10 | Cassava starch, chips, glucose syrup, molasses and ammonium sulphate | check the feedstock agent's files. Otherwise use the Vietnam Cassava Association or VSSA (sugar), or Tay Ninh starch factories. | Vietnam Cassava Association; VSSA | partly closed |
| OQ-082 | Construction cost per m2 for food/biotech factories | read MOC Decision 409/QD-BXD, Part 2, Chapter II (industrial works). Cross-check with the Cushman & Wakefield, RLB or Arcadis Asia construction cost guide (HCMC and Hanoi). | Cushman & Wakefield; RLB; Arcadis | open | |
| OQ-083 | Engineer, biotech and QA salaries | Navigos Group salary report 2026, Talentnet-Mercer Total Remuneration Survey, or Adecco Vietnam salary guide. | Navigos Group, Talentnet-Mercer or Adecco Vietnam 2026 salary guides. | Navigos; Talentnet-Mercer; Adecco | open | |
| OQ-084 | Natural gas and CNG prices for industry; steam tariffs in industrial parks | request quotes from PV GAS D and Gas South; ask Nhon Trach or Phu My park operators. | PV Gas; BSR (Dung Quat CO2 capture); starch-factory biogas. | PV GAS D; Gas South; BSR | open | |
| OQ-085 | Logistics: trucking cost per tonne-km and 20/40 ft container rates HCMC to Singapore or Shanghai | ask the Vietnam Logistics Business Association (VLA) or a forwarder; Drewry/Freightos spot rates. | Vietnam Logistics Business Association; VLA; Drewry; Freightos | open | |
| OQ-086 | Precision fermentation cost benchmarks | GFI APAC (precision-fermentation cost analyses); Synonym/Roebling capacity reports; Liberation Bioindustries capex (ask the company). | GFI APAC; Synonym; Roebling; Liberation Bioindustries | open | |
| OQ-087 | Plant protein isolate and HME capex | equipment quotes (Buhler, Clextral, Famsun); read Jarunglumlert et al. 2023 (Thailand). | Buhler; Clextral; Famsun | open | |
| OQ-088 | Official grid emission factors for 2024 and 2025: MAE Department of Climate Change. | open | |||
| OQ-089 | 19 | End date of the 8% VAT reduction, and whether a new feed ingredient (for example SCP) automatically counts as "animal feed" for VAT non-taxability | regulation agent or the General Department of Taxation. | General Department of Taxation | open |
| OQ-090 | Retail pangasius price | VASEP bulletin or a store check. | VASEP | open | |
| OQ-091 | Social insurance rates after the 2024 Social Insurance Law | confirm with the regulation agent. | open |
Formulation and retail (7)
| ID | Priority | Question | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-092 | 7 | Is any TVP extruded in Vietnam, and by whom? | Call Thanh Dũng (Thuận An, HCMC), An Nhiên/Phạm Gia Phát and Âu Lạc and ask where their TVP comes from; ask VMC Group (Phụ Gia Việt Mỹ) which TVP brands it sells. Buy consignee-level customs records for HS 2106.10 and 1109 from a trade-data vendor (for example Tradeimex or Volza) to name the importers. | Customs HS code data for soy protein isolate imports (HS 3504) and TVP (HS 2106.10) would show import dependence. Ask Vinasoy, and the instant coffee spray-dryers (Nestle Tri An, Masan/Vinacafe Bien Hoa, Trung Nguyen), about toll drying. | Thanh Dũng; An Nhiên; Âu Lạc; VMC Group; customs; Tradeimex; Volza; Vinasoy; Nestle; Masan; Trung Nguyen | open |
| OQ-093 | Protein content of conventional equivalents. | Photograph nutrition panels of Vissan giò lụa, giò thủ and chả giò thịt and Cầu Tre chả giò thịt on the next store visit. | open | ||
| OQ-094 | Domestic mung bean production and prices. | NSO (GSO) statistical yearbook; MAE crop statistics. | NSO; MAE | open | |
| OQ-095 | 18 | Where Vinamilk's pea protein comes from. | Vinamilk procurement or investor relations; customs HS 3504/2106 consignee data. | Vinamilk; customs | open |
| OQ-096 | Tàu hũ ky and mì căn import volumes. | Vietnamese customs 8-digit lines (for example 2106.90 sub-lines) via the General Department of Customs or a trade-data vendor. | General Department of Customs | open | |
| OQ-097 | Lab verification. | Send 10 to 15 high-volume chay SKUs to a Vietnamese accredited lab (for example a NIFC or Quatest unit) for protein and moisture; label values here are unverified. | NIFC; Quatest | open | |
| OQ-098 | Coverage of chay specialty shops and online. | A half-day visit to 3 or 4 dedicated chay stores in HCMC (Nguyễn Kiệm area near Âu Lạc) and a scrape of Shopee/Lazada chay listings would fill the small-maker gap. | Âu Lạc | open |
Science (7)
| ID | Priority | Question | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-099 | Aro et al. 2023 T. reesei titers | read the open-access full text at doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2022.112131 (one read). | open | ||
| OQ-100 | Name and accession of the striped catfish gill line | email ICAR-NBFGR National Repository of Fish Cell Lines (Lucknow). | ICAR-NBFGR | open | |
| OQ-101 | EU status of Wolffia | read the Union list entry and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/2223 on EUR-Lex; check the EC novel food catalogue entry for Wolffia. | open | ||
| OQ-102 | FeedKind (Calysta) shrimp and fish trials | search Aquaculture and Aquaculture Nutrition for "FeedKind" and "Methylococcus capsulatus" 2019 to 2026. | open | ||
| OQ-103 | Spirulina protein content and digestibility | one targeted Scite search (Braune et al. 2025, Life 15:1789 is a starting review). | open | ||
| OQ-104 | 14 | Tropical cooling cost | ask a Vietnamese MSG or yeast plant (Vedan, Ajinomoto, AB Mauri) for chiller energy per m3 of broth; no paper found. | Vedan; Ajinomoto; AB Mauri | open |
| OQ-105 | Duckweed PDCAAS | ask whoever cited 0.89 for the primary source. | open |
Feed market (3)
| ID | Priority | Question | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-108 | Absolute shrimp and pangasius feed prices. | A current dealer price list (dai ly thuc an) from the Mekong Delta, or VASEP's cost-of-production series. | VASEP | open | |
| OQ-109 | Tilapia and pangasius SCP or yeast replacement thresholds. | Targeted Scite search next wave; Can Tho University and Nong Lam University aquaculture faculties. | Can Tho University; Nong Lam University | open | |
| OQ-110 | FAO SOFIA 2024 fishmeal figures read directly. | FAO page returned 403; try the FAO Open Knowledge repository PDF. | open |
Geography, institutions and outlook (6)
| ID | Priority | Question | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-111 | Commune-level count after 1 July 2025 (about 3,321 in agent knowledge). | NA Standing Committee resolutions on each province's commune reorganisation (June 2025) on thuvienphapluat, or the Ministry of Home Affairs. | Ministry of Home Affairs | open | |
| OQ-112 | Law on Organisation of Local Government 2025 (number and date; the two-tier model). | thuvienphapluat search "Luật Tổ chức chính quyền địa phương 2025". | open | ||
| OQ-113 | MOF, MOIT and MOH unit lists after March 2025, and which MOIT unit keeps food-safety duties until the new Food Safety Law. | read Decrees 29/2025, 40/2025 and 42/2025 on thuvienphapluat. | open | ||
| OQ-114 | China 15th Five-Year Plan text on biomanufacturing and food. | the NPC outline (Xinhua full text, March 2026). | open | ||
| OQ-115 | Food Safety Law vote date. | the National Assembly session agenda (quochoi.vn) for the second 2026 session; REG2 agent. | National Assembly | open | |
| OQ-116 | World Bank long-run price paths (none after 2027). | the IMF WEO commodity assumptions, or the OECD-FAO baseline (to 2034). | IMF; OECD | open |
Infrastructure and talent (3)
| ID | Priority | Question | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-121 | 13 | Which labs hold amino-acid and digestibility methods in their VILAS scope. | Phone NACEFA (024 38582752), NIFC, Eurofins Sac Ky Hai Dang (+84 28 7107 7879) and CASE. Or query BoA by field "Hóa" and province using the form at boa.gov.vn. | NACEFA; NIFC; Eurofins Sac Ky Hai Dang; CASE; BoA | open |
| OQ-122 | Location and scope of Centre II (Decision 3065/QĐ-BNNMT) and aquatic Region I (Decision 173/QĐ-TSKN). | Read those two decisions on thuvienphapluat.vn. | open | ||
| OQ-123 | National key laboratories relevant to food and biotech. | Get the list from MOST (now the merged Ministry of Science and Technology). | MOST | open |
Futures 2030 to 2050 (28)
| ID | Priority | Question | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-128 | Average soybean-meal inclusion and feed conversion by species and farm type, as a time series. | Data from three large mills and the Vietnam Feed Association under confidentiality; the first national protein balance (RM-01). | Vietnam Feed Association; MAE Department of Livestock Production and Animal Health | open | |
| OQ-129 | Monthly imports of yeasts, protein preparations and feed additives from China (HS 2102, 3504, 2309): volumes and unit values. | Vietnam customs monthly data; ITC Trade Map. | Vietnam customs (MOF) | open | |
| OQ-130 | Is Thai Duong Feed JSC's yeast-protein line (national project 2016 to 2019) still operating, and at what volume? | Ask the company; check MAE feed lists; read NASATI report 16724/2019. | Thai Duong Feed JSC; MAE; NASATI | open | |
| OQ-131 | Volume and purity of CO2 at named sites (ethanol, fertiliser, refineries, Formosa Ha Tinh, cement, steel). | Company sustainability reports; the MAE list of facilities that must report emissions. | MAE Department of Climate Change; plant operators | open | |
| OQ-132 | Status of Vietnamese green hydrogen projects, including the Tra Vinh plant and any electrolyser at investment decision. | IEA hydrogen projects database; MOIT; provincial portals of Vinh Long, Ca Mau, Dong Thap. | MOIT; provincial People's Committees | open | |
| OQ-133 | Do hi-tech agriculture zones under Decree 263/2026 admit full-scale feed or fermentation plants, or only research and pilots? | Read Articles 4 to 7 of the decree in full; ask a provincial Department of Agriculture and Environment. | MAE; provincial People's Committees | open | |
| OQ-134 | Where will MAE site its biotechnology clusters and innovation centres (plan due December 2026)? | MAE portal from December 2026. | MAE | open | |
| OQ-135 | Has the national biotechnology strategy 2026 to 2030 (vision 2045) been issued, and does it name fermentation, feed protein or new food? | vanban.chinhphu.vn; mst.gov.vn. | MOST | open | |
| OQ-136 | What does NDC 3.0 (2026 to 2035) set for agriculture and livestock, and has the 2025 national climate scenario been published? | UNFCCC NDC registry; IMHEN; MAE Department of Climate Change. | MAE | open | |
| OQ-137 | Is the 2050 methane target in Decision 896 measured against 2020 or 2030? | Read the signed PDF of Decision 896. | MAE | open | |
| OQ-138 | Vietnam-specific aquaculture projections beyond 2035, including SSP-based projections for shrimp and pangasius. | WorldFish Vietnam team; AsiaFish or FishMIP runs. | WorldFish; RIA2 | open | |
| OQ-139 | Marine finfish output and marine-feed volume in 2025. | MAE annual fisheries review; volumes from the main marine-feed mills. | MAE Directorate of Fisheries; feed mills | open | |
| OQ-140 | EPA plus DHA requirements of Vietnamese farmed species (whiteleg shrimp, cobia, pompano, grouper, lobster). | Targeted literature review; RIA3 (Nha Trang). | RIA3; Nha Trang University | open | |
| OQ-141 | Does Vietnamese feed law allow microbial protein grown on waste-derived substrates (wastewater, food waste, manure gas)? | One question to MAE's livestock and fisheries departments. | MAE | open | |
| OQ-142 | Delivered price, current uses and pretreatment behaviour of high-silica Mekong rice straw. | Provincial agriculture departments; a bench study at a Vietnamese university. | Can Tho University; provincial departments | open | |
| OQ-143 | Feed-list status of bacterial biomass, steel-gas protein and methanotroph meal. | One call to MAE's livestock and fisheries departments. | MAE | open | |
| OQ-144 | Vietnamese grid cells in the Fasihi et al. global single-cell-protein model. | Download the model's source data and extract Vietnam. | Model authors | open | |
| OQ-145 | Observed capital cost of first commercial microbial-protein plants and a global capacity baseline. | Exchange filings (Solar Foods, Unibio, Chinese producers); GFI capacity data. | GFI; company investor relations | open | |
| OQ-146 | Vietnamese life-cycle data for cassava starch, glucose and fermentation, with and without biogas. | Data from a starch plant with biogas; published Vietnamese LCAs in full. | Starch processors; universities | open | |
| OQ-147 | What does a combined efficiency plus alternative-protein scenario give for 2050 soybean-meal need? | Add a fifth scenario to balance_assumptions.csv and rerun tools/balance_model.py. | AltProtein Vietnam | open | |
| OQ-148 | Would Vietnamese stakeholders choose the same scenario axes, worlds and vision ranges? | One small scenario workshop with MAE, MOST, feed mills and investors. | AltProtein Vietnam with NISTPASS | open | |
| OQ-149 | Would an independent panel score the plays and moves the same way? | A second panel scores blind; compare. | AltProtein Vietnam | open | |
| OQ-150 | ACFTA and RCEP preferential tariff rates on HS 2102, 2106.10 and 3504. | Preferential tariff decrees on thuvienphapluat.vn. | MOF | open | |
| OQ-151 | Soy and maize price paths after 2035 under climate scenarios. | Vietnam-specific IFPRI IMPACT runs. | IFPRI | open | |
| OQ-152 | Industrial pipeline gas price in 2026, for methane-based protein. | A quote from PV GAS or Gas South. | PV GAS; Gas South | open | |
| OQ-153 | Design wet-bulb temperature for Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho, now and in 2050. | ASHRAE data for Tan Son Nhat; TCVN 5687. | IMHEN; engineering consultancies | open | |
| OQ-154 | Extent of cassava mosaic disease, 2024 to 2026. | MAE Plant Protection Department. | MAE | open | |
| OQ-155 | Pig and aquaculture household counts and farm-worker ages from the 2025 census. | Full NSO census report tables. | NSO | open |
Demand side, v0.3 (114)
Demand: diet and prices (12)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-156 | High | Has NIN published food-group intake tables (fish, eggs, milk, soy foods, legumes in g per day) from the General Nutrition Survey 2019 to 2020, or started a newer national survey? | The only national intake numbers we found are meat, vegetables, fruit and energy from press reports; a product brief needs intake by food group and age. | Email NIN (Vien Dinh duong) for the survey report or tables; check the NIN library. | National Institute of Nutrition | open |
| OQ-157 | High | How many grams of meat, fish, egg or tofu sit in a typical serving of pho, bun, com tam, com binh dan and banh mi? | This sets the protein per serving a novel ingredient must deliver in each dish and the tonnage per outlet. | Buy and weigh 20 to 30 servings per dish in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi (two days of fieldwork), or ask NIN whether its dish composition data are public. | AltProtein Vietnam field team; National Institute of Nutrition | open |
| OQ-158 | High | What share of meat, and of which meats, is eaten away from home? | Eating out is 22.5% of food spending and 29.6% in cities; foodservice may be the first channel for novel protein. | Ask NSO for VHLSS eating-out detail or run a short intercept survey at 50 eateries. | National Statistics Office of Viet Nam | open |
| OQ-159 | High | What are the own-price and cross-price elasticities between pork, chicken, fish, eggs and tofu in Vietnam? | They tell founders how far a price cut draws demand from pork and whether tofu gains when pork spikes. | Obtain the full text of Vu and Nguyen 2025 (DIE-33) and ask the authors for the elasticity tables. | VNU University of Economics and Business (authors of DIE-33) | open |
| OQ-160 | High | What do school meals and institutional kitchens pay per meal and per 100 g of protein, and what protein specifications do they use, especially in mountainous provinces with stunting above 30%? | Institutional buyers could be early, price-sensitive customers for fortified plant or fermented protein. | Interview three provincial education departments and two school catering firms; read current Ministry of Education guidance on school meals. | Ministry of Education and Training; provincial education departments | open |
| OQ-161 | Medium | Why is tofu consumption flat, and why do southern households eat a third as much as northern households? | It shows whether cheap plant protein has a taste, habit, availability or quality ceiling. | Short survey of tofu buyers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City markets plus interviews with 5 tofu makers. | AltProtein Vietnam field team | open |
| OQ-162 | Medium | Why do Vietnamese say they reduce meat, if they do? | We found no nationally representative survey; online panels exist but overstate intentions. | Check other wave 6 streams; commission 5 questions on an existing omnibus with a national frame. | Market research firms (for example Kantar Worldpanel Vietnam, Decision Lab) | open |
| OQ-163 | Medium | Why does FAO egg supply imply about 70 eggs per person when NSO egg counts imply about 211? | Eggs are the cheapest animal protein and a direct benchmark for fermentation-derived egg protein. | Ask FAO Statistics Division and NSO which production basis each uses. | FAO Statistics Division; National Statistics Office of Viet Nam | open |
| OQ-164 | Medium | Is there an official monthly retail pork price series? | Needed to size the price shocks that make pork blends attractive to processors. | Request the pork sub-index of the CPI from NSO or daily market prices from the Ministry of Industry and Trade price portal. | National Statistics Office of Viet Nam; Ministry of Industry and Trade | open |
| OQ-165 | Low | What protein do labels of mainstream UHT milk and soy milk declare? | Our fresh milk figure uses the 2007 composition table; labels may be lower. | Photograph five labels in any supermarket. | AltProtein Vietnam field team | open |
| OQ-166 | Low | Is there a newer edition of the Vietnamese Food Composition Table than 2007, with dishes? | A dish-level table would answer the serving question cheaply. | Ask NIN; check the Medical Publishing House catalogue. | National Institute of Nutrition | open |
| OQ-167 | Low | How large is Vietnam's middle class on an agreed definition, and how fast is it growing? | We used World Bank consumption thresholds as a proxy; consulting firm figures were not retrieved. | Read World Bank Vietnam poverty and equity assessments and one consulting report directly. | World Bank Vietnam office | open |
Demand: chay (15)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-168 | High | What share of Vietnamese adults keep chay days, and how many days a month (0, 2, 4, 8 to 10, whole months)? | It sets the size of the chay channel and the displacement arithmetic; no probability survey exists | Add three questions to an existing nationally representative omnibus or the next VHLSS round; or buy a question on a face-to-face omnibus | General Statistics Office (NSO); Institute for Religious Studies (VASS); Pew Research Center; Kantar Worldpanel Vietnam | open |
| OQ-169 | High | How much do household purchases of tofu, mushrooms and đồ chay rise on lunar 1st and 15th and in lunar months 1 and 7? | Revealed demand by calendar day would replace press quotes with measured uplift | Request a lunar-calendar cut of existing household panel or retailer scan data | Kantar Worldpanel Vietnam; NielsenIQ Vietnam; Saigon Co.op; Bach Hoa Xanh (Mobile World); WinCommerce | open |
| OQ-170 | High | What are annual sales (tonnes and VND) of industrial đồ chay, by maker? | No audited figure exists; needed to size the B2B ingredient opportunity | Ask the five largest makers for chay line volumes under NDA; check annual reports and AGM documents | Vissan; CJ Cau Tre; SG Food; Au Lac; An Nhien; Thoai An | open |
| OQ-171 | High | How much protein do street, market and supermarket chay foods actually contain? | The protein gap is the product opening; labels are sparse and unverified | Buy 50 to 100 samples across three cities and run Kjeldahl protein tests | National Institute for Food Control (NIFC); university food labs; AltProtein Vietnam | open |
| OQ-172 | Medium | How common is meat DNA or unsafe additives in chay products? | Trust is the category's weak point; a prevalence figure would size the value of verified supply | Apply the Can Tho University PCR kit to a stratified sample before Vu Lan | Can Tho University Biotechnology Institute; NIFC; provincial market surveillance | open |
| OQ-173 | High | Would periodic chay eaters and strict vegetarians accept a higher-protein fungal or textured ingredient inside familiar chay formats at the same price? | Stated interest is high but untested; this decides the ingredient strategy | Blind sensory and choice test of reformulated chả, giò and há cảo chay at pagodas and chay shops | University food science departments; a chay manufacturer partner | open |
| OQ-174 | Medium | What share of chay buyers require allium-free or egg-free products? | Decides whether allium-free variants are a niche SKU or a requirement | Short intercept survey at pagodas, chay shops and supermarket chay aisles in three regions | AltProtein Vietnam; Vietnam Buddhist Sangha contacts | open |
| OQ-175 | Medium | How many chay restaurants are active on ShopeeFood, GrabFood and Google Maps by city, including Hue? | Foody counts are cumulative and thin outside big cities | Scripted count of platform listings with an 'chay' category or keyword, with a manual check of a sample | Platform data teams; any analyst with browser access | open |
| OQ-176 | Medium | How many meals do pagoda kitchens serve and who supplies them? | 18,544 Buddhist sites are a possible institutional buyer that nobody has sized | Interview a sample of pagoda kitchens in Ho Chi Minh City, Hue and Hanoi | Vietnam Buddhist Sangha; provincial Sangha committees | open |
| OQ-177 | Medium | Is chay observance rising among young urban people, or only chay dining supply? | Rising observance would make chay a displacement route, not just a channel | Repeat-panel questions in an existing youth or consumer tracker | Decision Lab; Q&Me; Cimigo; university survey units | open |
| OQ-178 | Medium | Do people who eat chay on set days eat more meat on other days? | Compensation would reduce the impact value of adding chay days | Food diary study across a lunar month in 200 households | National Institute of Nutrition; university nutrition departments | open |
| OQ-179 | Medium | What is the true national tofu output, including craft villages? | USSEC implies about 31,500 t, which looks far too low against craft village volumes | Count craft village output from provincial industry and trade departments; buy the USSEC report | Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade; USSEC; soybean importers | open |
| OQ-180 | Low | How much mushroom is consumed domestically, and what share is eaten on chay days? | Mushrooms are the chay protein that spikes in price; they compete with any fungal product | Ask the mushroom association and wholesale markets for volumes by month | Vietnam mushroom producers; Binh Dien and Long Bien wholesale markets | open |
| OQ-181 | Low | Did Vissan set any chay-specific target for 2026? | The brief refers to Vissan 2026 chay targets; we found none in AGM coverage | Read the 2026 AGM documents directly or ask Vissan investor relations | Vissan investor relations | open |
| OQ-182 | Low | How large are Vietnamese vegan online communities and festivals, verified? | Only self-reported figures exist | Read public follower counts on platforms; ask organisers for attendance records | Song Thuan Chay; festival organisers | open |
Demand: consumers (14)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-183 | High | Vietnam-level cuts of the GFI APAC Decoding Demand survey that are not public: frequency if concerns resolved, health benefits sought, drivers of choice, segment age and income, and the Vietnamese-language questionnaire | It is the only large Vietnam sample on plant-based meat; the public charts omit Vietnam splits for several items and the exact Vietnamese wording (chay or thực vật) is unknown | Download the full report through the GFI APAC form and request the Vietnam tables and questionnaire | GFI APAC (Corporate Engagement team) | open |
| OQ-184 | High | Plant-milk sales by type (soy, nut and seed, oat) and by channel, 2020 to 2025 | Plant milk is the only proven modern plant-based category; product and price design depends on which sub-category is growing | Buy the Euromonitor Plant-based dairy in Vietnam report or NielsenIQ retail data; ask Vinamilk and QNS investor relations | Euromonitor; NielsenIQ Vietnam; Vinamilk IR; QNS IR | open |
| OQ-185 | High | Tested willingness to pay in Vietnam for protein-upgraded chay, blended meat and high-protein plant milk | No choice experiment, auction or in-store price test exists for these products in Vietnam; stated ladders overstate | Run a 400 to 800 person online choice experiment plus a 4-week in-store price test with one retailer (Co.opmart or WinMart) | AltProtein Vietnam with a university partner (NEU, VNUA, HUST) and a retailer | open |
| OQ-186 | High | Which label terms Vietnamese shoppers trust: chay, thuần chay, thực vật, đạm thực vật, plant-based, giàu đạm | Naming decides whether a product reads as religious food, fake meat, or healthy protein | Randomised label test in an online panel (Q&Me or Rakuten Insight) with 4 to 6 pack variants | Q&Me; Rakuten Insight; Decision Lab | open |
| OQ-187 | Medium | E-commerce sales of sữa hạt, sữa yến mạch, thịt chay and đồ chay on Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop | E-commerce is where niche premium products can reach urban buyers; data exist but are paywalled | Buy Metric.vn e-reports for these keywords (12 months) | Metric.vn; YouNet ECI | open |
| OQ-188 | Medium | Current plant-based items and plant-milk upcharges at KFC, Burger King, Pizza 4P's, Highlands, The Coffee House, Phuc Long, Katinat, Starbucks Vietnam | Foodservice is where most first trials happen; menus show revealed chain demand | One-day menu check in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi (in person or via delivery apps) | AltProtein Vietnam field team | open |
| OQ-189 | Medium | Size of the periodic vegetarian population (eating chay on the 1st and 15th lunar days or during the 7th lunar month) | This is the largest existing plant-protein eating occasion in Vietnam and the natural launch window | Add two questions to an omnibus survey; ask NIN whether its general nutrition survey records chay days | Q&Me omnibus; National Institute of Nutrition | open |
| OQ-190 | Medium | Vietnam plant-based or flexitarian studies by Decision Lab, Ipsos, YouGov, Kantar Worldpanel, NielsenIQ, Mintel consumer, Cimigo | Not checked in this wave because the web search quota ran out; the register may be incomplete | Search these publishers in the next wave; ask each for any 2023 to 2026 Vietnam food-trend decks | Decision Lab; Ipsos Vietnam; YouGov; Kantar Worldpanel Vietnam; NielsenIQ Vietnam; Mintel; Cimigo | open |
| OQ-191 | Medium | Results of the GFI APAC and A*STAR Asia-focused blended meat sensory study | Would give the first tested acceptance data for blends in Asia, the most promising entry format | Email GFI APAC; check A*STAR and Palate Insights publications | GFI APAC; A*STAR | open |
| OQ-192 | Low | Whether Beyond Meat, OmniFoods, Next Meats, Heura, CP Meat Zero, Zhenmeat, Starfield or Meatless Farm are still sold in Vietnam, and at what volume | Separates temporary absence from market exit; tells investors whether the import route failed | Ask importers and retailers (Annam Gourmet, Nam An, Classic Fine Foods, Bewina); check Shopee and Lazada listings | Annam Gourmet; Nam An Market; Classic Fine Foods Vietnam | open |
| OQ-193 | Medium | Food-safety premium in Vietnam: tested WTP for certified safe pork or chicken | Food safety is the Vietnam-specific driver; the safe-meat premium is the benchmark a safety-positioned plant protein must meet | Literature review of choice experiments on VietGAP and safe meat (VNUA, IPSARD); read Ha et al. 2019 | VNUA; IPSARD; ILRI Vietnam | open |
| OQ-194 | Low | Evidence on parents and children as buyers of plant protein (school meals, children's milk) | Plant milk and soy milk are heavily bought for children; no study covers this | Ask Vinamilk, Vinasoy and school-meal caterers; add a parent module to an omnibus | Vinamilk; Vinasoy; Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education | open |
| OQ-195 | Low | Expatriate and tourist demand for plant-based meals | 21.2 million international arrivals (2025) and expatriate districts sustain the gourmet channel where imports sit | Count vegan and vegetarian listings on travel platforms; ask hotel groups; MOLISA work-permit data for expatriate numbers | MOLISA; hotel groups; Vietnam National Authority of Tourism | open |
| OQ-196 | Low | Vietnamese-language academic papers not retrieved (e.g. Phan and Ho 2024 on plant-based meat intention in Ho Chi Minh City) | They may add samples outside students | Retrieve from Tạp chí Công Thương and university repositories | University libraries (UEH, FTU, NEU) | open |
Demand: frontier categories (15)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-197 | High | Do Vietnamese consumers accept a sausage, giò lụa or dumpling filling in which 20 to 30 percent of the meat is replaced by a fungal or fermented protein, at the same price and protein level, in a blind test? | This is the most likely entry route and no Vietnamese tasting data exist. A single central-location test would move the evidence from stated to tested. | Blind central-location test with 100 to 150 consumers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City using existing processor recipes; a university sensory lab can run it for a few thousand USD. | HUST School of Biotechnology and Food Technology (authors of RD-32 and NOV-02); Nha Trang University; a processor such as Vissan or CJ Foods Vietnam | open |
| OQ-198 | High | Which Vietnamese name for cultivated meat is least damaging: thịt nuôi cấy, thịt tế bào, thịt nhân tạo, or a benefit phrase? | Press uses thịt nhân tạo (artificial) for both plant-based and cell-based products, and 'fake food' scandals are live. Names change acceptance in other markets. | Add a randomised name-and-frame module to any planned online survey (n about 1000); cost is low if added to an existing omnibus. | Q&Me, Decision Lab or Cimigo omnibus; SMU team behind NOV-32 for method | open |
| OQ-199 | High | What share of each country's sample, including Vietnam, fell into each segment in Lin et al. 2026, and what exact adoption-readiness items were used? | It is the only multi-country Asian study with Vietnamese cultivated meat data; we could read only the abstract. | Email the corresponding author for the country table. | Bioeconomy Science Institute, New Zealand (Mao-Tang Lin) | open |
| OQ-200 | High | What are the Vietnam-only (Ho Chi Minh City) results of GFI APAC's Decoding Demand survey, including sample size and the blended-meat question wording? | The 93 percent blended figure is regional and stated; the Vietnam breakout and exact wording decide how much weight it can carry. | Download the gated report with a registration, or ask GFI APAC for the Vietnam slide. | GFI APAC | open |
| OQ-201 | High | Will precision-fermented proteins that contain no DNA have to carry a GMO (biến đổi gen) label on consumer products under Decree 43/2026 and the new Food Safety Law? | A GMO label is a strong negative in Vietnam (84 percent premium for non-GM soymilk; non-GMO claims by VitaDairy and Vinasoy). The answer decides whether PF can go direct to consumers or only B2B. | Written query to the regulator; review the draft Food Safety Law text when tabled in October to November 2026. | Vietnam Food Administration (Ministry of Health); Ministry of Agriculture and Environment | open |
| OQ-202 | High | How much lactoferrin (and whey protein isolate) do Vietnamese formula and nutrition makers import each year, at what price, and would they accept a precision-fermented source? | Lactoferrin is the clearest premium PF ingredient and VitaDairy, Nutifood and Morinaga already market it in Vietnam; volume and price set the addressable B2B market. | Customs data query by HS code plus two procurement interviews. | VitaDairy, Nutifood, Vinamilk procurement; Vietnam Dairy Association; Vietnam customs data | open |
| OQ-203 | High | What is the soy protein and other functional protein inclusion rate in Vietnamese processed meats, and what price per kg do processors pay for these proteins? | It defines the existing B2B slot that fungal or fermented proteins could take and the price to beat. | Two to three interviews with processor R&D managers; ingredient distributor price lists. | Vissan, CJ Foods Vietnam, SG Food, Cholimex; ingredient distributors | open |
| OQ-204 | Medium | Is GOOD Meat 3 still on sale at Huber's Butchery, and what volumes and repeat purchases did it achieve? | It is the only retail cultivated product in Asia; its fate is the best revealed test of consumer pull. | Email Huber's Butchery and Eat Just; check shelf in person in Singapore. | Huber's Butchery; Eat Just | open |
| OQ-205 | Medium | How many of Vow's Singapore restaurant partners kept Forged on the menu after launch, and what were repeat orders? | Dish counts are company claims without retention data; retention is the demand signal that matters. | Ask Vow; call a sample of listed Singapore restaurants. | Vow; Singapore restaurant partners | open |
| OQ-206 | Medium | What happened to Vinh Hoan's stakes in Avant Meats and Shiok Meats and to Minh Phu's R&D MOU with Shiok Meats? | They are the only Vietnamese corporate demand signals for cultivated seafood; their status shows whether incumbents still see value. | Check Vinh Hoan annual reports and investor presentations; email investor relations. | Vinh Hoan Corporation; Minh Phu Seafood; Umami Bioworks | open |
| OQ-207 | Medium | Would the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha or leading chay restaurants regard cultivated meat or precision-fermented dairy as chay? | Chay consumers are the largest group already buying meat substitutes; a negative view would close that segment for cultivated products. | Interview two or three senior monastics and chay restaurant owners; review Sangha publications. | Vietnam Buddhist Sangha; Au Lac and other chay brands | open |
| OQ-208 | Medium | Does the word lên men (fermented) on a protein product raise acceptance compared with vi sinh (microbial), nấm men (yeast) or công nghệ sinh học (biotechnology)? | Fermentation looks like a positive frame in Vietnamese media and marketing but has not been tested on protein labels. | Add a four-arm label test to the naming survey above. | Same survey provider as the naming test | open |
| OQ-209 | Low | What is Vietnam's actual edible mushroom output: about 250,000 t or about 25,000 t per year? | The two figures differ tenfold; the size of the mushroom habit and of substrate supply depend on it. | Ask the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment crop department; check FAOSTAT for Vietnam. | Ministry of Agriculture and Environment; FAO | open |
| OQ-210 | High | What volume of processed meats (xúc xích, giò chả, chả lụa, nuggets) does Vietnam produce and eat per year? | Needed to size the blend route; we found no figure. | Statistics office industrial output tables; processor annual reports. | National Statistics Office; Vissan and Masan MEATLife annual reports | open |
| OQ-211 | Low | Would Malaysian or Indonesian buyers accept a halal-certified blended or fermented protein made in Vietnam? | Export demand for halal proteins could matter more than domestic demand for some products. | Two importer interviews; check JAKIM and BPJPH rules for foreign-made novel proteins. | JAKIM; BPJPH Indonesia; Vietnam halal certifiers | open |
Demand: channels and institutions (18)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-212 | High | What share of fresh meat, eggs, tofu and chay foods do urban and rural households buy in each channel in 2025 to 2026? | Decides whether a meat alternative can follow the meat purchase into modern trade or must go through kitchens | Buy a one-off cut of household panel data by channel and category | Kantar Worldpanel Vietnam (Worldpanel by Numerator); NielsenIQ Vietnam | open |
| OQ-213 | High | What listing fees, trade margins, promotion contributions and payment terms do Bach Hoa Xanh, WinCommerce, Saigon Co.op, Lotte and AEON charge for frozen chay and processed meat? | Without them no consumer product can be priced; we found no retrievable source | Three buyer interviews using a supplier onboarding enquiry | Category buyers at MWG (Bach Hoa Xanh), WinCommerce, Saigon Co.op; incumbent suppliers SG Food, Vissan, CJ Cau Tre | open |
| OQ-214 | High | What does frozen distribution cost per kg from a factory to modern stores in HCMC, Hanoi and Nha Trang, and what margin do distributors take? | Frozen formats depend on it; also a gap in the supply study | Two quotes from cold-chain logistics firms and one distributor interview | Cold-chain 3PLs; Vietnam Logistics Business Association; frozen-food distributors | open |
| OQ-215 | High | How much protein and meat is in a typical factory canteen meal, what does the protein component cost, and do caterers already use chay or textured soy? | Sets the cost and protein target for an ingredient in the largest price-set channel | Interviews and menu sheets from three large caterers and two factory canteens | Vietnam EOC, Hoang Kim, Vinastory, Dussmann, Thao Ha; union canteen committees (VGCL) | open |
| OQ-216 | High | Would a large caterer run a blind trial of a blended or chay protein dish, and with what acceptance? | Would give the first tested evidence in any Vietnamese channel | One four-week trial at one factory with plate-waste and preference measures | A large caterer and a willing FDI factory; university sensory lab | open |
| OQ-217 | High | Is Lotteria's Burger Zero Meat still on the menu, and what were its sales and repeat rates? What happened to KFC's 2018 chay menu? | The only mass-chain meat-free trials; outcomes decide whether QSR is a route | Menu check in five stores plus a request to the chains' marketing teams | Lotteria Vietnam; KFC Vietnam | open |
| OQ-218 | High | Do Nha Trang hotels and restaurants report unmet demand for vegetarian or plant-based protein, and from which guests? | Tests the project's HoReCa hypothesis directly | Interview 20 hotel and restaurant F&B managers and audit 30 menus in Nha Trang | Khanh Hoa Department of Tourism; Khanh Hoa Tourism Association; hotel F&B managers | open |
| OQ-219 | Medium | How many pupils eat ban tru nationally, at what meal prices, and who supplies the kitchens? | Sizes the school channel beyond Hanoi | Request MOET data or provincial DOET reports for Hanoi, HCMC, Da Nang, Khanh Hoa | Ministry of Education and Training; provincial DOETs | open |
| OQ-220 | Medium | What are hospital patient meal budgets and military ration values, and how is food procured? | Large price-set channels not covered here | Written enquiry and document search | Ministry of Health; Ministry of National Defence General Department of Logistics | open |
| OQ-221 | Medium | What share of households own a freezer or fridge-freezer in 2024, by region? | Decides where frozen formats can sell outside big cities | Extract durable goods tables from VHLSS 2024 | National Statistics Office (Ministry of Finance) | open |
| OQ-222 | Medium | What is the frozen and ready-meal share of food retail, and how fast is it growing? | Sizes the format most novel products would use | Buy Euromonitor or NielsenIQ category data | Euromonitor; NielsenIQ Vietnam | open |
| OQ-223 | Medium | How large are frozen food and protein categories on Shopee, TikTok Shop, Lazada and GrabMart? | E-commerce is the test channel for premium products | Buy a category report | Metric.vn; YouNet ECI | open |
| OQ-224 | Medium | How many international visitors, from which markets, did Da Nang, Phu Quoc and Hoi An receive in 2025 to 2026? | Indian and Western vegetarian demand may concentrate there rather than in Nha Trang | Provincial tourism department statistics | Da Nang, An Giang (Phu Quoc) and Da Nang (Hoi An, post-merger) tourism departments | open |
| OQ-225 | Low | How many vegan, vegetarian and veg-friendly listings does HappyCow show for Nha Trang, Da Nang, Hoi An, HCMC, Hanoi and Phu Quoc? | Cheap proxy for tourist-facing vegetarian supply | Manual count in a browser (site blocks automated access) | AltProtein Vietnam team | open |
| OQ-226 | Low | How many halal-certified restaurants and hotel kitchens exist in tourist cities, and how many Muslim visitors arrive? | Halal certification may be a cheap add-on for plant products | Enquiry to halal certification bodies | Halal certification agencies in Vietnam; VNAT | open |
| OQ-227 | Medium | What volume of dried textured soy, tofu skin and gluten moves through wholesale and wet markets to households and street vendors? | The only no-cold-chain route for a plant protein ingredient | Interviews with three wholesale-market traders in HCMC and Hanoi | Binh Dien, Hoc Mon, Long Bien wholesale markets; chay ingredient importers | open |
| OQ-228 | Medium | Did the April 2026 school pork case change school procurement (certified suppliers, fewer pork dishes, more chay or egg dishes)? | A structural shift could open or close the school route | Interview Hanoi DOET and two caterers | Hanoi Department of Education and Training; school caterers | open |
| OQ-229 | Medium | Has the 2025 to 2026 tax and e-invoice reform measurably shifted grocery spending from traditional to modern trade? | Speeds or slows the modern retail route | Household panel trend data | Kantar Worldpanel Vietnam | open |
Demand: business buyers (13)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-230 | High | How much of the China-shipped HS 3504, 2106.10 and 1109 tonnage (about 54,000 t in 2025) goes to food rather than feed, and to which buyers? | China's HS 3504 unit value (USD 0.89 to 1.03/kg) is too low for food-grade isolates, so the food market for plant protein may be much smaller than trade totals suggest; this sizes the addressable B2B market for a domestic ingredient | Buy 2024 to 2025 Vietnamese customs declaration-level data (8-digit code, goods description, importer) from a trade-data vendor, or request a tabulation from the customs statistics unit | General Department of Customs (statistics); commercial trade-data vendors | open |
| OQ-231 | High | Which firms import soy protein isolate, TVP and gluten into Vietnam, and in what tonnage each? | Names the real first customers and the distributors who control SME access | Same declaration-level dataset; cross-check with distributor interviews (VMC Group, Brenntag Vietnam, Barentz Vietnam) | Trade-data vendors; distributors | open |
| OQ-232 | High | What inclusion rates and annual tonnages of soy protein, gluten, milk protein and egg white do Vissan, Masan MEATLife, CJ and Cholimex use? | Converts label presence (31% of Vissan formulations) into tonnes and spend | Short structured interview with R&D or purchasing managers using the supply study founder questionnaire | Vissan R&D; Masan MEATLife; CJ Foods Vietnam; Cholimex Food | open |
| OQ-233 | High | How long does ingredient qualification take (sample, pilot, line trial, supplier audit, listing) at a large Vietnamese processor, and what documents are required? | Sets the time to first revenue for any domestic or novel ingredient | Interviews at Fi Vietnam or through the Vietnam Association of Food Science and Technology; ask for supplier approval checklists | Vinamilk QA; Acecook QA; Vissan QA; VAFoST | open |
| OQ-234 | High | At what price and specification would Vinamilk, Vinasoy or Nutifood trial a Vietnamese rice or mung bean protein isolate instead of imported pea protein? | Tests the most promising pull for a domestic plant-protein isolate | Send specification sheet and samples; run a price-point interview with 5 to 10 R&D buyers | Vinamilk R&D; Vinasoy; Nutifood NNRIS | open |
| OQ-235 | Medium | What is Vietnam's total industrial processed-meat output (t per year) by product type? | Needed to scale meat-extender demand beyond one company | NSO industrial production statistics by product code; MOIT; company filings (Vissan, Masan MEATLife, CAN) | National Statistics Office; Ministry of Industry and Trade | open |
| OQ-236 | Medium | Where does Vinamilk source its pea protein, and how much does it buy? | Measures the only confirmed large non-soy isolate demand | Customs declarations; supplier interview; Vinamilk procurement | Vinamilk procurement | open |
| OQ-237 | Medium | Do instant-noodle makers (Acecook, Masan Consumer, Uniben, Asia Foods) plan protein-fortified lines? | 8.2 billion servings a year; a small protein increment per pack would be a large ingredient volume | Interview Acecook R&D; audit labels of high-protein noodle launches in Japan and Korea by the same groups | Acecook Vietnam; Masan Consumer | open |
| OQ-238 | Medium | What protein ingredients do Duc Viet, Le Gia, Uniben, Asia Foods, TH, IDP and FrieslandCampina Vietnam use, and have they made statements on plant protein? | Gaps in this wave's buyer map because web search was unavailable | Retail label audit (extend FORM-01 method) and company websites | AltProtein Vietnam field team | open |
| OQ-239 | Medium | How much food-grade whey, WPC and lactose go to infant formula versus feed, and at what specification? | Sizes the precision-fermentation dairy opportunity against real specifications | USDA FAS Dairy and Products Annual; customs declarations; formula makers | USDA FAS Hanoi; infant formula makers | open |
| OQ-240 | Medium | Will precision-fermented proteins be treated as GMO food ingredients under the new Food Safety Law and Decree 43/2026, and what does that mean for dairy buyers' labels? | Buyers such as Vinamilk market 'non-GMO'; a GMO label could block uptake regardless of price | Legal review after the October to November 2026 National Assembly session | Vietnam Food Administration (Ministry of Health); law firms | open |
| OQ-241 | Low | Is the next Fi Vietnam in May 2027 (USDA) or May 2028 (organiser site)? | Timing of the main ingredient trade fair for first-customer meetings | Ask Informa Markets Vietnam | Informa Markets Vietnam | open |
| OQ-242 | Low | Do chay exporters require Halal, Kosher or non-GMO certificates from ingredient suppliers, and which certifiers? | A domestic TVP must carry the certificates its export customers need | Interview Au Lac and An Nhien export managers | Au Lac; An Nhien Foods | open |
Demand: export (14)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-243 | High | Do EU and UK private-label buyers (retailers and their importers) source plant-based foods from Asian co-packers, and at what price per kg and protein level would they list a Vietnamese product? | Private label is where price-led European demand is resilient and where Vietnam's 9 to 13 point EVFTA and UKVFTA tariff edge matters most; we found no revealed case of Western plant-based production in Vietnam. | Ten structured buyer interviews at Anuga or SIAL plus a request for quotation test with two co-packers | GFI Europe; EuroCham Vietnam food and beverage sector committee; Vietnam Trade Office in the EU | open |
| OQ-244 | High | Do plant-based foods made in Vietnam from imported (Chinese or US) soy protein or wheat gluten meet EVFTA, UKVFTA and CPTPP rules of origin for chapter 21 and 19 products? | If the imported protein input breaks origin, the tariff edge disappears for exactly the products Vietnam can make today. | Desk check of EVFTA Protocol 1 product-specific rules for 2106 and 1902, confirmed with a binding origin ruling request | Ministry of Industry and Trade (origin department); VCCI certificate of origin office | open |
| OQ-245 | High | Which Japanese and Korean food manufacturers would buy Vietnamese functional plant or fungal proteins for hybrid or processed meat, and to what specification? | Japan imports about USD 149 million of plant protein ingredients and admits Vietnamese textured vegetable protein duty-free; this is the most plausible B2B export entry. | JETRO and KOTRA matchmaking; sample submissions to three Japanese processed-meat makers | JETRO Ho Chi Minh City; KOTRA Hanoi; Japan Plant Based Food Association | open |
| OQ-246 | High | Do ASC-certified feed mills in Vietnam face buyer requests to cut soy or fishmeal or to report feed carbon footprints, and what price premium, if any, would they pay for a domestic non-soy protein? | This is the most frontier-relevant export-linked demand signal; no retrieved source quantifies it. | Short survey of the 20 ASC-programme feed mills and the top 10 shrimp and pangasius exporters | VASEP; ASC; Vietnam Feed Association | open |
| OQ-247 | Medium | What does ASC Feed Standard v1.2 (mandatory since 2 February 2026) change against v1.1, and when must ASC farms use ASC-certified feed? | We read v1.1 only; farm-level feed deadlines decide how fast the feed pull reaches Vietnamese mills. | Read v1.2 and the ASC Farm Standard feed requirements on the ASC programme centre | Aquaculture Stewardship Council | open |
| OQ-248 | Medium | What volume and value of vegetarian and vegan products does Vietnam export (Au Lac, An Nhien, SG Food, Agrex Saigon, Emmay), and to which importers? | Company export claims are unverified; revealed diaspora trade is visible only on shelves. | Customs declaration-level data (8-digit HS 2106.90, 1902, 2103) by exporter, or US import bill-of-lading data | Vietnam Customs (General Department); commercial bill-of-lading databases | open |
| OQ-249 | Low | Is there a Vietnamese vegan fish sauce or plant-based seafood export, and who buys it? | The brief listed these as possible platforms; we found no evidence either way beyond general sauce exports (HS 2103.90). | Check Weee!, H Mart and Asian grocers in Europe for listings; ask Cholimex and Masan | Vietnamese sauce makers; Asian grocers in the US and EU | open |
| OQ-250 | Medium | What are 2023 to 2026 revealed plant-based sales in China, Singapore, Australia and the Gulf states? | We could not retrieve revealed data for these destinations, so their demand direction is unknown. | Euromonitor or NielsenIQ extracts via GFI APAC; Food Frontier reports for Australia | GFI APAC; Food Frontier; Euromonitor | open |
| OQ-251 | Medium | Is Vietnam's national halal certification recognised in GCC states and Malaysia, and is there demand for halal plant-based meat there? | Vietnam already ships cashew and coconut to Muslim-majority markets; halal plant-based could be an entry product. | Desk review of HALCERT recognition lists and GCC import rules; interviews with two UAE importers | National Halal Certification Centre (HALCERT); Vietnam Trade Office in the UAE | open |
| OQ-252 | Medium | What preferential tariffs do Korea (VKFTA, RCEP) and China (ACFTA, RCEP) apply to Vietnamese 2106.10, 2106.90 and 2202.99? | Korea and China are large buyers of Vietnamese food; the tariff position of plant-based lines was not checked. | Look up KCS and China customs tariff tables for the three lines | Korea Customs Service; General Administration of Customs of China; MOIT | open |
| OQ-253 | Low | What is the composition of Vietnam's HS 3504 exports (USD 13 million in 2023): fish collagen peptides or other proteins? | If it is marine collagen, it is the existing template for B2B protein ingredient exports to Europe. | 8-digit customs data or Vinh Hoan (Vinh Wellness) annual report | Vinh Hoan Corporation; Vietnam Customs | open |
| OQ-254 | Low | Are textured soy protein (2106.10) and soy-based food preparations outside EUDR Annex I? | Determines whether Vietnamese exporters of soy-based foods must run EUDR due diligence from 30 December 2026. | Read Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 as amended and the Commission FAQ | European Commission DG Environment; EU Delegation to Vietnam | open |
| OQ-255 | Medium | How much would the US Section 301 rate of 12.5% on Vietnam change under any US-Vietnam trade arrangement in 2026 to 2027? | A move to 10% or below would reopen the US for Vietnamese plant-based convenience foods relative to Malaysia, Indonesia and India. | Monitor USTR Federal Register notices and Vietnam MOIT statements | USTR; Ministry of Industry and Trade | open |
| OQ-256 | Low | Which EU language versions allow 'coconut milk' and similar traditional names under the dairy-term exception list? | Coconut-based dairy alternatives are a Vietnamese strength; label rules differ by term and language. | Read Commission Decision 2010/791/EU annex | European Commission DG AGRI | open |
Demand: global benchmarks (13)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-257 | High | What are Vietnamese retail volumes, prices, household penetration and repeat rates for tofu, soy milk, packaged chay foods and imported plant-based meat, 2019 to 2025? | Every benchmark in this paper is foreign; the Vietnam sizing model needs a revealed baseline and a repeat rate, not survey intent | Buy a one-off extract of household panel data for the relevant categories | Kantar Worldpanel Vietnam; NielsenIQ Vietnam | open |
| OQ-258 | High | How large is Taiwan's traditional vegetarian and mock-meat industry, and did Western-style plant-based meat grow the category or take share within it after 2019? | Taiwan is the closest analogue to Vietnam (Buddhist vegetarian culture, soy and gluten mock meats, strong foodservice); we found only small retail figures and 2019 to 2020 launch claims | Ask for industry output and retail panel series; check Taiwan Council of Agriculture or MOEA statistics | Food Industry Research and Development Institute (FIRDI), Taiwan; Taiwan Vegetarian Food association bodies; Euromonitor | open |
| OQ-259 | High | Does buying plant-based meat or plant milk displace meat or dairy purchases in any Asian market? | The animal-welfare and supply-security case depends on displacement; all scanner-panel evidence found is from the US, UK and Netherlands, and shows weak or no displacement for meat analogues | Commission a panel analysis of households that start buying chay or plant-based products in Vietnam or Thailand | Kantar Worldpanel (Vietnam or Thailand) with a university economist | open |
| OQ-260 | High | What is the own-price elasticity of demand for plant-based meat, tofu and chay products in any Southeast Asian market? | Price is the largest gap in Vietnam (imported analogues cost 12 to 18 times eggs or chicken per gram of protein); we found no Asian elasticity estimate | Estimate from retailer scanner data in partnership with one modern-trade chain | Bach Hoa Xanh, WinMart or Co.op Mart with a Vietnamese university economics department | open |
| OQ-261 | High | Do plant-based defaults or higher vegetarian availability in Vietnamese canteens change what people eat over days and weeks, not just at the next meal? | Institutional routes are the best-evidenced lever, but the rigorous meta-analysis finds small lasting effects and no Asian trials were found | Run a pre-registered canteen trial with delayed outcomes in a university or factory canteen | A Vietnamese university canteen operator with GFI APAC or a public health school | open |
| OQ-262 | Medium | How did Lidl's 2023 price parity in Germany and the Netherlands affect total category volume and meat sales, separating share-shifting between retailers from category growth? | Price parity is the most cited tipping point; the only effect figure is a company claim with no control, while national volumes stalled | Request retailer-level Circana splits or an independent evaluation | GFI Europe; ProVeg; Schwarz Group | open |
| OQ-263 | Medium | What are Thailand's meat-substitute sales volumes (kg), channel split and brand shares for 2020 to 2025, and what happened to Krungthai COMPASS's 2024 forecast? | Thailand is the nearest ASEAN comparator with a large meat industry moving into plant-based (CP, NRF, Thai Union) | Buy the Euromonitor Thailand meat substitutes extract or ask Madre Brava for its dataset | Euromonitor; Madre Brava; Krungsri Research | open |
| OQ-264 | Medium | What is the size and trend of China's plant-based meat market by channel since 2019, separating traditional su rou from Western-style products? | China supplies Vietnam's textured soy and gluten and is the largest Asian market; we found only press accounts of decline | Ask for Euromonitor or Mintel China series; GFI APAC may hold them | GFI APAC; Euromonitor | open |
| OQ-265 | Low | What is Japan's soy meat (daizu meat) market size time series, and what is soy milk's share of all drinking milk? | Japan shows soy milk growing while soy meat contracted; a share figure would give an Asian plant-milk ceiling | Retrieve MAFF milk statistics (e-Stat) and Yano or Fuji Keizai soy meat data | Japan Soymilk Association; Yano Research Institute; MAFF | open |
| OQ-266 | Low | What is the size of South Korea's meat analogue market and who buys it? | Korea is an active Asian alternative-protein policy market (Food Tech Industry Promotion Act, December 2025); we could not read the one Korean market paper found | Read the PMC review 'An investigation of the status of commercial meat analogs and their ingredients: worldwide and South Korea' (blocked by rate limit on 24 September 2026) | aT Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corporation; KATI | open |
| OQ-267 | Low | What are actual sales volumes and prices of cultivated meat products to date (Singapore, US, Australia)? | Needed to show frontier actors how small the market still is; no company publishes volumes | Ask Singapore Food Agency or companies directly; GFI APAC cultivated team | Singapore Food Agency; GFI APAC | open |
| OQ-268 | Low | How much precision-fermented dairy protein is sold B2B, at what price per kg, and to which food makers? | B2B ingredient demand is one of Part III's four layers; we found investment and cost claims but no volumes | Interview two or three buyers and producers under confidentiality | GFI (fermentation team); Vinamilk or TH procurement | open |
| OQ-269 | Low | Are there plant-based meat retail series for Sweden, Israel, Singapore and Hong Kong comparable to the Circana and SPINS series? | The brief asked for these countries; we found none in retrieved sources | Ask GFI Europe (Nordics), GFI Israel and GFI APAC for data they hold | GFI Europe; GFI Israel; GFI APAC | open |
Actor check and expansion waves, v0.4 (107)
Expansion: public meals (8)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-270 | High | What is the basis of the "animal protein at least 48% of total protein" standard printed by the MOET, Ajinomoto and NIN menu software, is it a default or a hard check, and does the software food list include textured soy or other processed plant proteins? | If it is a hard check or textured soy is absent, a plant ingredient cannot be written into software-built school menus; this decides whether DMV-17 is the first school move | Written question to the NIN school nutrition team and the Ajinomoto School Meal Project; or a registered school account to inspect the menu bank | National Institute of Nutrition; Ajinomoto Vietnam; MOET Department of Students | open |
| OQ-271 | High | What will the MOET circular on bán trú meal organisation (due 2026 under Decision 973/QĐ-TTg) say about menus, processed foods, supplier documents and menu software? | It is the binding rule window for school meals in 2026 to 2027 and may restrict or admit processed plant proteins | Watch the MOET draft-document portal and ask to join the consultation | Ministry of Education and Training | open |
| OQ-272 | Medium | What do school caterers pay per kg for tofu, pork, chicken, eggs and fish, and what share of a VND 35,000 to 40,000 meal is food? | Replaces the retail-price budget in this line and fixes the TPP-04 school price target | Cost sheets from three caterers (Hoa Sua, Ngoi Sao Xanh, Tu Anh) | School caterers | open |
| OQ-273 | Medium | Will primary pupils eat a textured-soy dish in the plant slot and a 20 to 30% blend in xíu mại or thịt viên, measured by plate waste? | Decides whether schools become a second route for hybrids and whether the plant slot can take a new ingredient | Two-week trial with one caterer that writes one menu for several schools, with ward approval | A Hanoi caterer and ward People's Committee | open |
| OQ-274 | Medium | Do factory canteen menus hold tofu, chay or textured soy, and at what grams and cost per protein dish? | Still the largest price-set channel; no published menus found (OQ-215 remains open) | Menu and cost sheets from three caterers and two union committees | Contract caterers; enterprise union committees | open |
| OQ-275 | Low | How common are tofu substitution and tofu menu versions in public hospital patient-meal tenders? | Hospitals are a small, specification-led channel that already accepts tofu for meat | Read ten tenders on public hospital websites and the national procurement portal | Public hospitals; Ministry of Health | open |
| OQ-276 | Low | What protein foods and quantities make up the army ration under Circular 96/2025/TT-BQP? | Completes the public-meal map; only the VND 72,000 allowance is known | Written enquiry | Ministry of National Defence, General Department of Logistics | open |
| OQ-277 | Low | Do preschool menus (outside Decision 3958) serve more plant protein than primary menus? | Preschools are a separate rule regime and a large meal count | Audit 20 preschool weekly menus on the same school-site platforms | Provincial education departments | open |
Expansion: fiscal and tariff rules (7)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-278 | High | Are soy milk (TCVN 12443:2018) and nut, oat and rice milks above 5 g total sugar per 100 ml "nước giải khát" under Law 66/2025/QH15 and Decree 360/2025/ND-CP? | Decides whether core Fami, Veyo and Vinamilk plant milks pay 8% excise from 2027 and 10% from 2028 while dairy is exempt; sets the sugar design rule for TPP-05 host drinks. | A written question to the MOF Tax Policy Department (or through the MOF Q&A portal), or an investor-relations question to QNS and Vinamilk. | Ministry of Finance (Tax Policy Department); QNS; Vinamilk | open |
| OQ-279 | High | What VAT rate (8% or 10%) do Vinasoy and Vinamilk invoice on sweetened plant milks in 2026? | Revealed industry reading of the law: drinks above 5 g that are excise goods lost the 2% VAT cut from 1 January 2026. | One distributor or retailer purchase invoice for Fami and for Vinamilk Sữa Hạt Cao Đạm Ít Đường. | QNS sales; a modern-trade retailer buyer | open |
| OQ-280 | Medium | Will the 2% VAT reduction (Decree 174/2025) be extended beyond 31 December 2026? | Sets the 2027 VAT on processed foods, dairy and plant milks (8% or 10%) and the size of any gap with excise goods. | Watch the National Assembly session of October to December 2026. | National Assembly; Ministry of Finance | open |
| OQ-281 | Medium | What share of Vinasoy and Vinamilk plant-milk volume is above 5 g total sugar per 100 ml? | Sizes the excise exposure (upper bound VND 384 to 480 billion a year for soy milk) and the likely reformulation push. | Label audit of the top 20 SKUs using QNS self-declaration files and shelf photos, plus one IR question on sales mix. | QNS; Vinamilk investor relations | open |
| OQ-282 | Medium | What share of imports under HS 2106.10, 3504 and 1109 claims ACFTA or RCEP preference (Form E or RCEP certificate)? | If utilisation is low, part of the MFN duty is paid and the T1 price benchmark is up to 5% higher. | Preference-code field in declaration-level customs data (extends DMV-02), or ask two distributors (VMC Group, TDGIMEX). | General Department of Customs; ingredient distributors | open |
| OQ-283 | Medium | Will incumbents reformulate plant milks below 5 g total sugar before 2027, and do the new recipes add protein or fibre? | A move to protein-fortified sub-5 g drinks would raise T10 market pull; no move leaves it at 4. | Compare QNS self-declarations filed in late 2026 and 2027 with 2025 versions; two R&D interviews. | QNS (Vinasoy) R&D; Vinamilk R&D | open |
| OQ-284 | Low | What is the current MFN rate on 1109, 1208.10, 2106.10, 3504 and 2202.99 after Decree 21/2025/ND-CP (not identified)? | Confirms that the MFN rates used for non-FTA origins are current. | Read the title and annex of Decree 21/2025/ND-CP on Thư Viện Pháp Luật. | Ministry of Finance | open |
Expansion: funder units and fit (8)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-285 | High | Which meats do Vietnamese factory-canteen protein dishes use, by dish-day (pork, chicken, fish, egg, tofu), and how much protein is in each dish? | Animals spared per canteen meal differ about 34-fold between a pork dish (0.0016) and a chicken dish (0.055); cost per animal spared cannot be narrowed without it. It also fixes the package's unmeasured 20 g protein per dish. | Collect four weeks of published or supplied menus from five large caterers and two factory kitchens; log dish species in the DMV-05 trial. | Large contract caterers (CHN-41); Hai Phong Labour Federation (CHN-39) | open |
| OQ-286 | Medium | What share of processed meat volume (gio, cha, sausages, canned) is pork, poultry and beef? | Sets the species mix of the hybrid route; the ruminant share drives about half of R3's CO2e and the poultry share most of its animals. | Processors' annual reports by product line; a question to the meat processors' association (links to DMV-09). | Vissan; Masan MEATLife; meat processors' association | open |
| OQ-287 | Medium | Do added chay days also displace fish and eggs, and by how much? | The model counts meat only; fish counts per kg are far higher than poultry, so welfare funders' animal totals for R2 and R4 could be much larger. | Add a 24-hour recall item on chay days to the DMV-01 survey question. | National Institute of Nutrition; General Statistics Office | open |
| OQ-288 | High | Would Nova Vista (or a similar market-shaping funder) count domestic textured soy, blends or a canteen protein ingredient as 'innovative protein', and would it consider Vietnam in a later round? | Decides whether TPP-01, TPP-03 and TPP-04 procurement or offtake asks are fundable at all; the RFP names plant-based meat, fermentation-derived protein and cultivated meat and excludes whole-food work. | One email to the RFP contact with a two-paragraph Vietnam concept. | Nova Vista Foundation | open |
| OQ-289 | High | Which funder would pay for a Vietnamese canteen trial now that ACE Movement Grants exclude diet change, ReRoot excludes Vietnam and Lever is not in Vietnam? | DMV-05 is Part III's main test of the displacing canteen route; without a payer it stays a recommendation. | Three calls: Humane World Viet Nam (implementer), Coefficient Giving (emerging-economy movement building), the Navigation Fund (institutional impact). | Humane World for Animals; Coefficient Giving; The Navigation Fund | open |
| OQ-290 | Medium | What does Humane World's Forward Food menu work cost per meal shifted, and did any Vietnamese institution trained in 2025 commit to menu changes? | The only implementer metric with a Vietnam presence; would replace our four cost cases with a revealed cost. | Ask Humane World for programme cost and commitments by country. | Humane World for Animals | open |
| OQ-291 | Medium | When will the school food standards under UNICEF's 2027 to 2031 programme and MOET's unified national menu be drafted, and is protein quality (not animal share) in scope? | Decides whether DMV-17 has a window and which version (procurement or protein quality) to pursue. | One call to UNICEF Viet Nam's nutrition section and the MOET Department of Students. | UNICEF Viet Nam; MOET | open |
| OQ-292 | Low | What are current (post-2015) life-cycle emission intensities for Vietnamese pork and poultry per kg carcass? | Our factors are GLEAM 2005; newer values could shift CO2e by perhaps 20% but would not change any ranking or conclusion. | GLEAM 3 dashboard or a Vietnamese cradle-to-carcass LCA if one appears. | FAO GLEAM team; ILRI | open |
Expansion: commitments and competitors (9)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-293 | High | Would Saigon Co.op's private-label team list a higher-protein (10 g or more per 100 g) version of an existing Co.op Select chay dumpling or roll made by GN Foods, and at what shelf price, margin and minimum volume? | Decides whether retailer private label is a first route to shelf for TPP-02 without building a consumer brand; today's Co.op Select chay line is starch and vegetable led | Submit one product pitch with GN Foods through Co.op's supplier portal (answer within 10 working days) and hold one interview with the private-label team | Saigon Co.op private-label department; GN Foods JSC | open |
| OQ-294 | High | What protein content do the dry soy-gluten chay pieces sold to kitchens (Panko suon mieng chay, An Nhien foodservice packs) have, and how much do caterers and school kitchens buy? | Sets the real price to beat for TPP-04 (about VND 4,000 to 5,100 per 20 g protein on a borrowed protein range) and shows whether canteens already use plant protein | Buy five foodservice packs and read the labels; ask Kamereo and MM Mega Market for category sales to caterers and schools | Kamereo; Sumimoto (Panko); MM Mega Market; AltProtein Vietnam team | open |
| OQ-295 | Medium | Why is CP Meat Zero no longer orderable on Kamereo, and was it sold through C.P. shops or retail in Vietnam? | Separates a failed B2B test from a supply pause; tells investors whether an integrated meat group's own analogue failed in Vietnamese foodservice | Two short enquiries | C.P. Vietnam marketing; Kamereo category team | open |
| OQ-296 | Medium | How are Accor's Vietnamese hotels delivering the 50% vegetarian or plant-based dish target (2030) and Novotel's 25% (2026): current share, protein sources and suppliers? | The only corporate commitment that binds Vietnamese units; would name a showcase buyer and show whether the dish metric creates any protein-ingredient demand | Request Accor's Vietnam reporting; audit the menus of ten Accor hotels in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang and Nha Trang | Accor Vietnam; Humane World for Animals Viet Nam (Forward Food) | open |
| OQ-297 | Medium | What does ACC charge for Angel Yeast's yeast protein in Vietnam, and which makers have sampled or trialled it since May 2025? | Sets the competitor price for TPP-06 and TPP-05 and could replace the ch16.6 clean negative on novel-protein pilots | One call to ACC's food and nutrition team (overlaps AIS-L10) | Asia Chemical Corporation (ACC) | open |
| OQ-298 | Medium | Will WinCommerce's 25 to 50 planned house brands include frozen chay or tofu, and who would make them? | WinCommerce reaches about 6,100 stores by end 2026; a house-brand chay line would be the largest private-label route | One interview; check the online assortment of three more stores | WinCommerce private-label team; Masan | open |
| OQ-299 | Medium | Does MM Mega Market sell dry textured soy, gluten or foodservice chay packs to kitchens, and at what price per kg? | MM is a cash-and-carry used by kitchens; its prices were not retrievable online | One store visit in Ho Chi Minh City | MM Mega Market Vietnam | open |
| OQ-300 | Low | Does Bach Hoa Xanh sell private-label chay or tofu? | Completes the private-label map for the largest minimart chain | A store or app check | Bach Hoa Xanh (MWG) | open |
| OQ-301 | Low | Which Vietnamese food companies hold cage-free pledges, and do the same staff decide protein sourcing? | Tests whether a protein ask could ride on existing welfare engagement (AFN-Q23); VAWW publishes no list | Two enquiries | Vietnam Animal Welfare Watch; Humane World for Animals Viet Nam | open |
Expansion: textured protein economics (9)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-302 | High | What is the delivered price in Ho Chi Minh City of food-grade, low-temperature defatted soy flour (stated NSI or PDI), GMO and non-GMO, from China, India and Serbia, in 2026? | It is 63 to 85% of full cost and decides the sign of the margin at Chinese parity; the breakeven for a 15% margin is USD 700 to 1,076 per t at 1 t/h | Five written supplier quotes (CIF Cat Lai, 20 t lots) requested by a partner chay maker or distributor | Shandong soy protein makers; Indian soy flour exporters; the Serbian concentrate supplier named on An Nhien labels; Brenntag Vietnam | open |
| OQ-303 | High | What share of HS 2106.10 imports is textured protein, as opposed to concentrate powder or supplement premix, and who imports it? | Sets the pool a soy line can serve (12,832 t of textured-type imports in 2025 is an upper bound) and names the buyers | Declaration-level customs extract for 2106.10.00 with descriptions and importers (DMV-02, OQ-231) | General Department of Customs (GDVC); a trade-data vendor | open |
| OQ-304 | High | What do chay makers buy each year (tonnes of textured soy and gluten, shapes and sizes), and would two or three of them co-invest in or pre-buy from a shared line? | Converts the pool into named offtake; the SKU mix decides die changes and real utilisation; co-investment is the structure the economics favour | Five calls or visits with a one-page specification and indicative price (combine with AIS-L01) | An Nhien (Pham Gia Phat); Au Lac; Thoai An; SG Food; Cholimex; CJ Cau Tre | open |
| OQ-305 | High | What preferential duty do Chinese, ASEAN and Indian textured protein, gluten and food-grade soy flour pay into Vietnam in 2026 (ACFTA, ATIGA, AIFTA)? | Moves the parity price by about 5% on textured protein and 10% on gluten | Read Decree 118/2022/ND-CP and the ATIGA and AIFTA schedules for 2106.10, 1109 and 2304.00.21 (W7-L2) | W7-L2 fiscal line; Ministry of Finance | open |
| OQ-306 | Medium | What do distributors charge SMEs for 20 to 25 kg bags of Chinese textured soy, and on what credit terms? | This, not the border price, is the price a domestic line meets in the long tail of small buyers | Mystery-shopper quotes from three distributors | VMC Group; TDGIMEX; Brenntag Vietnam | open |
| OQ-307 | Medium | What do firm CIF quotes for 0.5 and 1 t/h dry TVP lines with dryer and installation cost from three Shandong makers and one European maker? | Turns listing prices (Low) into quotes (Medium); capex is not decisive at Chinese prices, so this matters mainly for a European-grade line | Request for quotation by email with a one-page specification | Jinan Saibainuo; Jinan Sunward; Shandong Joyang; Buhler, Clextral or Wenger regional offices | open |
| OQ-308 | Medium | Does any Vietnamese workshop already run a small Chinese TVP extruder, and has any extrusion attempt closed? | Tests the clean negative on domestic extrusion and would give real operating data | Ask the Ho Chi Minh City dealer (FORM-34) and three Chinese vendors for Vietnamese reference customers | Tan Sao Bac A Machinery; Chinese vendors | open |
| OQ-309 | Medium | What is the 2026 ex-works price of plain flour-based TVP in China, and how far could exporters cut it? | Defensibility: the Chinese spread over flour is about USD 630 per t on 2025 unit values | Buyer-style request for quotation to three Chinese TVP makers | Chinese TVP makers (via a Vietnamese importer) | open |
| OQ-310 | Low | Does the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City have a food extruder that startups could rent for trials? | Would give T1 and T5 a local pilot route | Email the corresponding author of the 2026 HMMA paper | Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City | open |
Expansion: base rates (6)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-311 | High | What share of adults ate no meat, poultry or fish on recall days that fell on lunar 1st or 15th, against other days, in the 2021 Viet Nam DQQ round? And the same by age and income group? | Gives the first revealed estimate of chay-day keeping (R2 keeper share and days) and of who keeps them; tests ch12 2.5% avoided meat protein | Ask the Global Diet Quality Project or Gallup for a tabulation by interview date (microdata are licensed, not public) | Global Diet Quality Project (GAIN, Harvard); Gallup | open |
| OQ-312 | High | Can the next Viet Nam DQQ round, or the next NIN nutrition survey, add giò, chả and nem chua to the processed-meat item and add a chay-day item? | Only national instrument that could test R3 (processed-meat share) and R2 (chay days) at low cost | Propose the wording to the Global Diet Quality Project and the National Institute of Nutrition | Global Diet Quality Project; National Institute of Nutrition | open |
| OQ-313 | High | Under which Vietnamese customs heading, and by which importers, is the post-October 2023 flow that China declares as HS 3504 (about 25,000 t at about USD 1 per kg in 2024) recorded? | Decides whether the 2024 jump is feed or technical protein (R1 food pool about 35 kt) or food isolate (about 40 kt); Viet Nam recorded only 38% of the Q4 2023 value as 3504 | Declaration-level customs data (DMV-02); or Comtrade calls for further Viet Nam headings from China once the server is stable | Viet Nam customs (General Department of Customs); researchers with declaration data | open |
| OQ-314 | High | Has any startup or small maker sold a protein ingredient (textured protein, fungal or pulse protein) to Vietnamese chay makers, meat processors or caterers, and what happened? | The ingredient route Part III recommends has no founder test in the firm register | Five calls to chay makers (An Nhien, Au Lac, Thoai An) and to the distributor ACC | Chay makers; ACC (Asia Ingredients Group) | open |
| OQ-315 | Low | Are VMEAT, Is It Meat?, Yukino Foods, Bien Phuong, Karana, Float Foods, Phuture and Meatiply still registered and trading? | Firms up 8 of 11 dormant statuses in the base rates | Business registry lookups (Viet Nam national business registration portal; Singapore company registry; Malaysia company registry) | Registries; founders | open |
| OQ-316 | Low | Did the 2025 Vu Lan season show the same pre-season rise in textured protein imports? | Confirms the seasonal signal in a year with a late 7th lunar month (starting 23 Aug 2025) | Viet Nam customs monthly statistics or Comtrade once 2025 monthly data are loaded | Viet Nam customs; UN Comtrade | open |
Expansion: labels and standards (6)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-317 | High | Would MAE and VFA treat a recombinant protein identical to the native protein as a detectable product of the modified gene under Joint Circular 45/2015 Art 1(2)(a), and may a product containing one below 5% still claim non-GMO? | Decides whether precision-fermented proteins above 5% inclusion carry a GMO label and whether low-dose users keep non-GMO claims (DMV-16; ch14.2; OQ-201) | Joint written question to MAE (Department of Science and Technology; Nature Conservation and Biodiversity) and VFA | MAE; Vietnam Food Administration (MOH) | open |
| OQ-318 | Medium | Do packaged chay foods on sale now declare protein as Circular 30/2026/TT-BYT requires, and how many makers are exempt small businesses? | Tells whether the protein gap can be tracked from labels and how much of the chay market sits outside nutrition labelling (OQ-171; TPP-02) | Label audit of 50 packaged chay SKUs in two cities, recording nutrition panels and maker size | AltProtein Vietnam field team | open |
| OQ-319 | Medium | Does any province or VFA laboratory test chay products for meat or animal DNA, and with what results? | State inspections found so far check hygiene and origin only; testing capacity decides whether meat-free claims can be enforced (DMV-07; DMV-13) | Written request to VFA and the National Institute for Food Control; provincial Department of Health inspection reports before Vu Lan | VFA; NIFC; provincial Departments of Health | open |
| OQ-320 | Low | What do Decree 37/2026/ND-CP chapter IV and Art 49(1) say exactly: article numbers for the name and quantitative-ingredient rules, and the tolerance for declared protein? | The tolerance sets the design margin for a 10 g per 100 g high-protein claim; article numbers are needed for citation | Read the official gazette (Công báo) text of Decree 37/2026 | MOST (National Committee for Standards, Metrology and Quality) | open |
| OQ-321 | Medium | Will the revised Food Safety Law or its decree add claim conditions, a chay definition or reserved names for meat and dairy words? | A reserved-name clause would reverse the naming finding and make DMV-15 urgent; a claim clause could make TCVN 14429 binding | Read the draft submitted to the National Assembly session from October 2026 and the decree drafts | MOH (Food Safety Department); National Assembly Committee on Science, Technology and Environment | open |
| OQ-322 | Low | Does VFA treat giàu đạm (rich in protein) as the same claim as cao đạm (high protein) under TCVN 14429:2025? | Decides whether giàu đạm on a chay food must meet 10 g per 100 g or 5 g per 100 kcal | Short written question to VFA | Vietnam Food Administration (MOH) | open |
Expansion: feed buyers (7)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-323 | High | Who imports HS 2102.20.10 (yeast of a kind used in animal feeding) and 2102.20.90, in what tonnage, 2024 to 2026? | Names T2 buyers and splits feed from food in the 9,200 t pool; three or more ASC mills each importing 500 t or more would meet the market-pull rubric of 5; mostly food or pet food would cut it to 3 | Declaration-level customs extract for 2102.20 by importer and description (extend DMV-02) | General Department of Customs; a trade-data vendor; Vietnam Animal Feed Association | open |
| OQ-324 | High | Which yeast products do Vietnamese shrimp and pangasius mills use, at what dose and price, and what gain do they measure? | Turns the inferred price-per-performance hurdle (1.2 to 1.8% of shrimp-feed cost) into a stated or tested one; sets the head-to-head trial design | Three structured calls with nutritionists at Grobest, Skretting Vietnam, De Heus (Vinh Long marine R&D centre) and Sheng Long | Grobest; Skretting Vietnam; De Heus Vietnam; Sheng Long | open |
| OQ-325 | Medium | What happened in Grobest's evaluation of bacterial single-cell protein (species, product, inclusion, result, price)? | The only disclosed microbial-protein test by a leading Vietnamese shrimp-feed maker; a negative on price or performance is the closest thing to a T2 kill-test result | Written question to Grobest's sustainability or R&D team | Grobest Group | open |
| OQ-326 | Medium | Would BAP count yeast or bacterial biomass grown on sugar as an ingredient from "other aquatic microorganisms" under Feed Mill Standard clause 4.6 (Amendment 1)? | Decides whether T2 or T3 products earn credit towards BAP's 75% marine-ingredient target, or only microalgae do | One email to the Global Seafood Alliance standards team | Global Seafood Alliance | open |
| OQ-327 | Medium | How much spent brewer's yeast and amino-acid fermentation biomass is produced in Vietnam, and where does it go now? | The revealed price (about USD 1.1 per kg) is set by by-product yeasts; a domestic by-product stream is the only T2 route that can meet it | Company sustainability reports and direct questions (links to OQ-017 and OQ-018) | Heineken Vietnam; Sabeco; Vedan; Ajinomoto Vietnam | open |
| OQ-328 | Low | Who exports the 8,166 t of HS 2102.20 that left Vietnam in 2025, and is any of it feed grade? | Domestic yeast plants are T2's nearest competitors and possible tolling partners | Ask AB Mauri Vietnam and Lesaffre (Saf-Viet); exporter-level customs data | AB Mauri Vietnam; Saf-Viet (Lesaffre); General Department of Customs | open |
| OQ-329 | Medium | Will Vinh Hoan's Feed One or another integrated pangasius group sign a trial or offtake for a non-insect microbial ingredient? | An anchor buyer is what investors and DFIs ask for (wave 7 AIS-Q14); none found | Direct approach to Vinh Hoan investor relations and Feed One management | Vinh Hoan Corporation; Nam Viet; Sao Mai Group | open |
Expansion: export buyers (7)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-330 | High | What share of Vietnam's stuffed-pasta and food-preparation exports (HS 1902.20, 2106.90) is vegetarian, which exporters make it, and for which foreign brand owners? | Sizes the existing base a plant-based extension SKU would join; decides R7 volume and TPP-08 first buyers | Eight-digit customs declarations by exporter for 1902.20 and 2106.90, or interviews with five exporters (CJ Foods Vietnam, Cau Tre, Cholimex, SG Food, the co-packer of Mr Chen's) | General Department of Vietnam Customs; VASEP; the exporters | open |
| OQ-331 | High | Does EVFTA Protocol 1 Annex II carry the same rules as the UK-Vietnam agreement for chapters 19 and 21 (20% cap on non-originating flour for stuffed pasta; change of heading for 2106)? | If yes, EU-bound chay foods using imported textured soy, and wheat-wrapper dumplings, pay 8.3% to 12.8% duty instead of 0% | Read Annex II on EUR-Lex or Access2Markets in a browser; ask for a binding origin information | European Commission DG TAXUD; EU Delegation to Vietnam; MOIT origin division | open |
| OQ-332 | Medium | How many Vietnamese food plants hold IFS Food or BRCGS Food certificates, and do any make chay or plant-based products? | IFS or BRC is the entry ticket named by Lidl and Carrefour; FSSC 22000 alone may not qualify | Search the BRCGS Directory and IFS certified-sites database by country (free, needs a browser) | BRCGS; IFS; certification bodies in Vietnam | open |
| OQ-333 | Medium | Which Vietnamese sites are on Sainsbury's and Marks and Spencer tier 1 food lists, and what do they make? | Shows whether any UK private label already buys from a Vietnamese food plant, and which categories | Free Open Supply Hub account; filter by contributor and country Vietnam | Open Supply Hub; Sainsbury's; Marks and Spencer | open |
| OQ-334 | High | Would EU importers of Asian frozen foods that hold retailer contracts quote for a vegetable or plant-protein wrapped SKU made in Vietnam, and at what price per kg, protein level and minimum order? | Replaces the ten-buyer private-label survey with the actors that actually hold the contracts | Three importer meetings at Anuga or SIAL, or by email with a specification sheet | European importers and traders named on retailer supplier lists (for example Thai Union Trading Europe; Kreyenhop and Kluge); VIETRADE | open |
| OQ-335 | Medium | Does CJ's Kizuna plant make plant-based dumplings or rolls for export, and will the Hungarian plant replace Vietnamese supply to Europe after 2026? | CJ is the clearest foreign buyer-owner of Vietnamese wrapped-food capacity; near-shoring would shrink the EU route | One interview with CJ Foods Vietnam export management | CJ Foods Vietnam; CJ CheilJedang | open |
| OQ-336 | Low | What progress has Tesco made against its goal of a 300% increase in plant-based meat alternative sales by 2025, and where are its Plant Chef products made? | Tesco is the largest UK private label; its figures could not be read | Read Tesco's ESG data in a browser or ask Tesco's sustainability team | Tesco PLC | open |
Expansion: nutrition quality (7)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-337 | High | Does a zinc-fortified textured-soy or soy-and-pork school dish raise serum zinc and haemoglobin in children aged 6 to 10 over 4 to 5 months, and do children eat it? | Decides whether a fortified plant dish can be named in menu software and whether TPP-11 is a lead brief for UNICEF and provinces | Cluster trial in 6 to 10 schools served by one caterer, on the design of NIN 2009 (NQR-22), with plate waste recorded | National Institute of Nutrition; UNICEF Viet Nam; one multi-school caterer | open |
| OQ-338 | High | What are the phytate-to-zinc molar ratios, zinc and iron contents and DIAAS (both patterns) of Vietnamese tofu, textured soy and a 25% soy minced-pork dish? | Sets the fortification level and tests whether tofu days count as moderate or poor zinc absorption | Laboratory analysis of 10 samples for phytate and minerals; DIAAS through an overseas pig or in vitro laboratory | National Institute of Nutrition; NIFC; an overseas DIAAS laboratory | open |
| OQ-339 | High | What complementary-food standard will UNICEF and MOH adopt under the 2027 to 2031 programme, and does it require animal-source protein or a DIAAS threshold? | Decides whether any soy-based product can enter stunting programmes | Call to UNICEF Viet Nam nutrition section and the MOH Department of Disease Prevention; read any draft standard | UNICEF Viet Nam; Ministry of Health | open |
| OQ-340 | Medium | What does Decision 116/QD-VDD (2026 RNI) set for zinc and iron by bioavailability and for upper limits at ages 6 to 11, and for protein in girls aged 8 and over? | Fixes the lunch targets and caps fortification levels | Request the full text from NIN or find it on the NIN document pages | National Institute of Nutrition | open |
| OQ-341 | Medium | What do border-commune school kitchens under Decree 339/2025 serve, how much animal food, and what do they pay for protein foods? | If upland lunches are mostly rice and vegetables, the zinc gap is large and TPP-11 has a funded buyer | Read published menus on school sites in Dien Bien, Son La, Lao Cai, Tuyen Quang and Cao Bang; call three schools | Provincial departments of education; school principals | open |
| OQ-342 | Medium | Will the amendment to Decree 09/2016 add new mandatory vehicles (rice, seasoning, fish sauce) or school-meal rules, and when? | A new vehicle such as fortified rice would supply zinc to every school lunch and weaken the case for fortifying a protein dish | Track the MOH draft and Government decisions on thuvienphapluat and chinhphu.vn | Ministry of Health (Department of Food Safety; NIN) | open |
| OQ-343 | Low | What does food-grade zinc oxide or zinc sulphate premix cost delivered in Vietnam per mg of zinc? | The only cost in the fortified-dish comparison we could not price | Quotes from two premix suppliers | Premix suppliers; NIN | open |
Expansion: e-commerce (5)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-344 | Medium | What are 12-month SKU-level sales of plant milks (soy, nut, oat), chay foods, plant-based meat and plant protein powder on Shopee, TikTok Shop and Lazada, 2025 to 2026? | Would show whether any analogue or high-protein SKU has sustained online sales (ch13, TPP-02, TPP-05); marketplace pages cannot be read with desk tools and free Metric posts give no plant or chay split | Buy one Metric.vn category report, or use its 7-day trial, for the keywords sua hat, sua dau nanh, sua yen mach, do chay, thit chay, protein thuc vat | Metric.vn | open |
| OQ-345 | Medium | Does a numeric protein claim lift sales against the same product without it? | ch13 reads rising searches and one Vinamilk launch as a sign that protein now sells; TPP-02 and TPP-05 rest on it; the only protein-claimed soy milk in the kitchen channel sells less than unclaimed ones | Ask Vinamilk for Sua Hat Cao Dam against 9 loai hat sales; ask Kamereo for GoldSoy Giau Dam monthly sales; or run a paired Shopee listing test with one chay maker | Vinamilk; Kamereo; a chay maker (An Nhien or Au Lac) | open |
| OQ-346 | Low | When did Kamereo start each sales counter, and what were last-12-month sales by SKU for plant milks, tofu, sausages and meats? | Turns cumulative counters into rates, so shares of kitchen demand can be stated with confidence | Email Kamereo with a short data request; offer the aggregated result back | Kamereo | open |
| OQ-347 | Low | Who makes GoldSoy and SuperSoy soy milks, and how much protein do they carry per 100 ml? | A second maker selling a protein-claimed plant milk is a possible T10 buyer; its label value is needed for price per gram of protein | Read the pack in a store, or ask Kamereo for the supplier | Kamereo; brand owners | open |
| OQ-348 | Medium | How much barista plant milk do Vietnamese cafe chains buy, and would they take a local rice, mung bean or soy barista base? | Oat barista milk made in Thailand is the plant-milk SKU with the highest sell-through in the kitchen channel; it is a use where a T10 isolate or a local base could replace imports | Ask the Oatside Vietnam distributor and two cafe chains for annual volumes, prices and specifications | Oatside Vietnam distributor; Highlands Coffee; The Coffee House | open |
Expansion: hybrid economics (6)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-349 | Medium | What do Vietnamese processors pay for lean pork trimmings (for example 80/20 and 90/10), and how does that price track the live hog price? | Sets the exact saving from extension; our model brackets it at 1.5 to 2.2 times live (conclusions hold across the range, amounts do not) | Two purchasing interviews at processors; slaughterhouse price lists in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi | Vissan; Masan MEATLife; a Binh Duong or Dong Nai slaughterhouse | open |
| OQ-350 | High | At what rate do Vietnamese processors already include soy protein in value and nutrition lines (binder level or 10 to 20% extension)? | If extension is already common, R3 is partly baseline and a novel extender has less room; extends OQ-203 | Two to three R&D interviews; a lab protein-source analysis of five commercial sausages and gio | Vissan; CJ Cau Tre; Masan MEATLife; HCMUT food technology group | open |
| OQ-351 | High | In a blind test at equal processor saving, does a fungal extender (about 25% of lean) score at or above the processor own soy-extended formula (20%) in gio lua or xuc xich and in a coarse filling? | Decides whether fungal biomass can be priced above soy parity in the extension job (T9 kill test, TPP-03); refines OQ-197 | One central-location test with 100 consumers per format using one processor recipe | HCMUT or HUST sensory group with Vissan or a co-packer | open |
| OQ-352 | Medium | Do Vietnamese rules set a minimum meat or protein content, or require a percentage declaration, for gio, cha or xuc xich (TCVN 8157:2017, TCVN 8158:2017, TCVN 7049:2002, labelling decrees)? | A minimum meat content would cap R3 directly and shape the honest-labelling move | Read the standards text on thuvienphapluat.vn or tieuchuan.vsqi.gov.vn; coordinate with W8-L1 | Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality; Vietnam Food Administration | open |
| OQ-353 | Medium | Would value-line buyers or consumers prefer a non-soy extender label (dam nam, mushroom protein) to soy protein in a sausage or dumpling? | The only route for a fungal extender to earn more than soy parity besides higher replacement | A 400-person online label choice test with real product photos | AltProtein Vietnam with a university consumer lab | open |
| OQ-354 | Low | What was the 2025 annual average live hog price, and is there an official monthly series? | Completes the 2019 to 2026 series (OQ-164); does not change conclusions | FAOSTAT 2025 producer price release; NSO CPI pork sub-index request | FAO; National Statistics Office | open |
Expansion: fillers and trust (6)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-355 | High | Does a front-of-pack named fungal or plant ingredient (có nấm hương; có đạm nấm) in an industrial xúc xích change purchase intent, compared with no front claim and with 'thịt heo 55%, thay 20% bằng đạm thực vật' (20% replaced by plant protein)? | Decides whether TPP-03 should name the plant part as an ingredient or declare meat replaced, and whether R3 can grow beyond undeclared binder use | Randomised label test at equal price, about 300 shoppers in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, with a blind tasting arm | HUST food sensory group; GFI APAC; a processor (Vissan or Masan MEATLife) | open |
| OQ-356 | Medium | What did the laboratory find in the chả đòn chay seized in An Giang (Phu Tan) on 22 April 2021 on suspicion of meat and fish? | The only official meat-in-chay case; a positive result would show that fake chay exists in industrial chay rolls | Written request to the An Giang Department of Agriculture and Environment and provincial environmental police | An Giang provincial authorities | open |
| OQ-357 | High | Have QUATEST 3, NIFC or provincial labs run animal-DNA screens on market chay since 2020, and with what positive rate? | Sets DMV-07's priority for meat DNA and whether 'verified meat-free' is worth paying for on TPP-02 | Records request or a short call to QUATEST 3 (service launched February 2025) and NIFC | QUATEST 3; National Institute for Food Control; VFA | open |
| OQ-358 | Medium | How do Vietnamese shoppers read 'đạm đậu nành' on a sausage label: as nutrition, as neutral or as filler? | Tells processors whether soy on the label is a liability and whether a non-soy (đạm nấm) label has value, as W8-L6 asked | Two items added to any planned consumer survey or choice experiment | Survey owner for DMV and ch13 experiments | open |
| OQ-359 | Medium | Do processors receive complaints about soy or starch in their products, and have any reformulated or relabelled because of them? | Direct evidence of a trust penalty on declared extenders in branded lines | Ask in the processor interviews already proposed (AIB-L05, W8-L6 candidate 1) | Vissan; Masan MEATLife; C.P. Vietnam | open |
| OQ-360 | Low | How large are online complaints about độn in giò, chả and xúc xích at pork price peaks (2019 to 2020, 2026)? | Sizes the trust penalty a price-driven extender would face | Social-listening report from a vendor | YouNet Media or Buzzmetrics (paid) | open |
Expansion: upland and canteen plates (6)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-361 | High | Do served meals in upland boarding schools match the published menus and cost sheets, and how common are cut rations? | Every finding here rests on plans and purchase sheets from schools that publish; the Hoang Thu Pho 1 case shows rations can be cut; if many kitchens serve thin meals, the zinc and extender cases change | Ask three provincial DOETs (Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Lao Cai) for their 2025 to 2026 bán trú inspection summaries; or a one-week plate and ledger check in five schools | Provincial Departments of Education and Training (Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Lao Cai); MOET Department of Students | open |
| OQ-362 | Medium | How many pupils receive Decree 66/2025 food support and Decree 188/2026 boarding support in 2026 to 2027, and what is the total food budget? | Sizes the upland school kitchen channel, which buys mostly pork; only the Decree 339 count (417,708) was found | Written request to MOET and the Ministry of Finance, or the 2027 budget estimate annex | MOET Department of Ethnic Minority Education; Ministry of Finance | open |
| OQ-363 | Medium | What do upland boarding breakfasts supply in protein, zinc, calcium and vitamin A? | 86% of breakfasts carry little or no animal food; breakfast, not lunch, is where a cheap fortified plant item could fill a gap | One weighed breakfast survey in two boarding schools, or ask NIN whether its school surveys cover breakfast | National Institute of Nutrition; Thai Nguyen University of Medicine and Pharmacy (authors of UPL-18) | open |
| OQ-364 | Medium | Would upland school kitchens use a textured-soy pork extender in braised pork-and-tofu dishes, at what price, and can their local suppliers provide one with the required documents? | Kitchens already replace about a third of the pork with tofu on two lunches in five; a cheaper extender would displace pork under fixed per-pupil budgets | Three calls to kitchen managers at Muong Nhe, Leng Su Sin and Ta Ngao, and one to a commune food supplier | School kitchen managers; commune food suppliers | open |
| OQ-365 | Low | What do the VGCL's 30 model shift-meal menus contain (species, plant slot, grams)? | They are the union's reference for canteen menus; a plant or blended dish in them would open the canteen route through collective bargaining | Email request to the VGCL Labour Relations Department and the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health | Vietnam General Confederation of Labour; Institute of Occupational Safety and Health | open |
| OQ-366 | Medium | What species mix and grams do industrial caterers actually serve (served menus, not marketing samples)? | The canteen animals-per-meal figure (0.010 to 0.029) and the fish share (26%) come from sample menus | Ask three caterers (Haseca, Hoang Kim, one Hai Phong caterer) for one month of served menus with grams | Industrial caterers; factory unions | open |
Expansion: marketplaces (4)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-367 | Medium | At what monthly rate do Vinamilk Cao Dam, Vinamilk 9-nut milk, GoldSoy and the top dry chay pieces sell on Lazada and Tiki? | Counters are cumulative with unknown start dates, so the high-protein share (10.9% of Vinamilk nut-milk litres) may understate a newer product's current rate; a rate would show whether protein is gaining share (ch13, TPP-05, T10) | Re-read the same 30 listings in a logged-out browser 4 to 6 weeks after 25 Sep 2026 and difference the counters (the listing IDs are in data_marketplace_sku_counters.csv) | AltProtein Vietnam (desk) | open |
| OQ-368 | Medium | Who makes the dry soy-protein and wheat-gluten pieces sold online by Tam Phat, Thien Duc, An Tue and Khanh An, and what soy protein do they buy (textured, concentrate or isolate; origin; tonnes a year)? | About 40,700 kg dry sold through these shops on Lazada alone; the makers are T1's most direct buyers but are not in buyer_map.csv | Phone the shops (numbers on their Lazada pages) or read pack labels bought online; ask An Nhien (BM-17) whether it co-packs for them | Tam Phat; Thien Duc; An Tue; Khanh An; An Nhien | open |
| OQ-369 | Low | How large are Shopee and TikTok Shop sales of the same SKUs? | Shopee is the largest platform; its rating counts for Cao Dam are 7 to 25 times Lazada's review counts (snippet-only), so Lazada understates online volume | One Metric.vn category report or its 7-day trial (as OQ-187 and OQ-223); or a team member reading 20 product pages while logged in to their own account | Metric.vn | open |
| OQ-370 | Low | Which pea or other plant protein do Vietnamese sports-powder brands (AFIT and similar) buy, from whom and at what volume? | A Vietnamese-made pea and nut powder is the top plant-powder listing on Lazada and undercuts imported whey per gram of protein; these brands are small possible buyers for a T10 isolate | Email AFIT Nutrition (licence 11/AFITNUTRITION/2025 on its page) and two similar brands | AFIT Nutrition | open |
Expansion: rules of origin (6)
| ID | Priority | Question | Why it matters | Cheapest way to close it | Who to ask | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OQ-371 | Low | Under EVFTA and UKVFTA, may an exporter of chapter 21 foods apply the 10% tolerance by value instead of weight? | Decides whether EU-bound chay preparations can carry more than 10% imported textured soy; affects recipe guidance, not T1 | Written query to the MOIT export-import department, or an EU binding origin information request by an importer | Ministry of Industry and Trade (origin department); an EU importer via its customs authority | open |
| OQ-372 | Medium | What share of EU imports of stuffed pasta from Viet Nam enters under the EVFTA preference? | Shows whether wheat-wrapper dumplings already meet the 20% flour cap or pay the MFN rate; sets the priority of wrapper reformulation in TPP-08 | Preference utilisation data from DG Trade, or a Comext extraction by tariff regime for CN 1902 20 from Viet Nam | European Commission DG Trade; Eurostat | open |
| OQ-373 | Medium | What share of weight is non-originating wheat flour in Vietnamese export dumplings, spring rolls and bao, and do EU-bound lines already use rice flour or cassava starch wrappers? | The flour cap, not textured soy, is the binding recipe constraint for EU-bound wrapped foods | Three calls to wrapped-food exporters (Cholimex Food, GN Foods, CJ Foods Vietnam) or pack labels | Exporters; VCCI certificate of origin office | open |
| OQ-374 | Low | Is Viet Nam still absent from the EU list for entry of meat products (Implementing Regulation 2021/404 Annex XV, consolidated)? | If absent, EU-bound Vietnamese dumplings can only carry seafood or plant fillings, which favours plant-protein fillings over pork | Read the consolidated regulation on EUR-Lex | European Commission DG SANTE; Department of Animal Health (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) | open |
| OQ-375 | Low | What rates do Korea and Australia apply to Vietnamese stuffed pasta and food preparations under VKFTA, AKFTA, AANZFTA and RCEP, and to Chinese goods? | Completes the tariff-edge map; the recipe does not bind there under RCEP | Korea Customs Service FTA portal; Australian Border Force working tariff | KOTRA Hanoi; Austrade | open |
| OQ-376 | Medium | How many Vietnamese food sites hold BRCGS or IFS Food certificates? | Sizes the pool of plants able to supply European importers directly | Free BRCGS Directory account, or a request to BRCGS and IFS for a country count | BRCGS; IFS Management | open |