This year, Phu Quoc fish sauce became the first product from Southeast Asia to receive Protected Designation of Origin certification from the EU Commission. To earn the prestigious label, a food product must be made entirely within a defined geographical area, using skills and ingredients from the region. European PDO products, including Prosciutto di Parma, Balsamic vinegar and Champagne, often enjoy a global reputation.

“We think of ourselves like a fine Bordeaux,” Cuong told me. “The things that make Phu Quoc fish sauce special—the anchovies, process, and climate—are quite different in Phu Quoc than in other fish sauce producing areas. The new designation recognizes these terroirs.”

The readiness with which Cuong tosses out terms like terroir indicates that Vietnamese producers are becoming more conscious of branding, especially for export markets.

The French word terroir describes the set of regional characteristics that give a wine or food its distinctive character: physical conditions (climate, geography), production methods, and intangible qualities like a sense of authenticity and identity. While Westerners typically associate the concept with French wine, the same idea has been ingrained in Vietnamese culture for centuries as dac san (“specialty”), but with much less aggressive marketing.

When I asked Ha Nguyen, a Vietnam News reporter who often writes about food traditions, about dac san, she immediately grabbed a pencil to scribble down a list: Buon Ma Thuot coffee, Lý Sơn garlic, Hải Dương mung beans, Ninh Thuân grapes. The country’s finest tea comes from Thai Nguyen province, she said, although a concrete reason for its specialness evaded her: “When you smell tea from Thai Nguyen, there's something about it. You know that it's good.” She waved her hand as if to inhale the scent of invisible green leaves.

But while Vietnamese might prize Thai Nguyen tea, consumers in America have no clue it even exists. Vietnamese tea “lacks branding,” Nguyen Quoc Vong, an agricultural product quality expert from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, told attendees at this year’s Vietnam Tea Outlook conference. “Consumers perceive it as low value.”

Other local specialties face the same problem.

“High-end food products made in Vietnam are very much the exception,” said Samuel Maruta, one of the founders of Marou Chocolate—the first artisan bean-to-bar chocolate maker in Vietnam. “Even products for which Vietnam is a major player, such as coffee and pepper, don't really have much of an image overseas.”

As Maruta suggests, the coffee industry’s woes offer a good illustration of Vietnam’s image problem. The country has a variety of microclimates with ideal conditions for growing unique beans. But government policies focus on boosting exports—forcing growers to ignore quality in favor of quantity.