Adding value to OCOP products

​Mr. Vo Van Phi, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee visits the province's OCOP booths at the provincial OCOP product certification conference in 2021. Photo: Phan Anh

In particular, the goal of striving for a new phase, OCOP subjects build a value chain in the direction of a circular economy, green OCOP associated with a stable raw material area.

Diversity of processed products

Building a value chain in the direction of a circular economy, green OCOP associated with a stable raw material area is the goal of OCOP subjects in the province.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Le, Director of Truong Phat Agricultural Service Cooperative, located in Long Tan Commune, Nhon Trach District said that she has taken advantage of all parts of the lotus plant to create 18 products processed from lotus. In which, there are many deeply processed products such as tea bags, nutritious lotus powder, etc. Not only linking with local farmers to establish an organic raw material area for processing, Truong Phat Cooperative has invested in a production line with many modern machines, building a display area, introducing products right at the factory to market products to consumers.

Truong Thanh Khoan One Member Co., Ltd located in Phu Son Commune, Dinh Quan District has also built a value chain in the direction of a circular economy from the investment in the material areas for growing Aquilaria crassna and producing the products that stimulate the Aquilaria crassna to create agarwood. Mr. Khoan does not sell the whole trees, but harvests and processes them himself. And many product lines from agarwood were sold to the market by him day by day. Currently, the enterprise is providing many products of agarwood to the domestic market and export such as: essential oils, agarwood, frankincense, etc. Enterprises do a full range of quality tests to prove the safety and essential oil content of this product to convince customers to follow.

Many OCOP subjects in the province are interested in investing in deep processing for agricultural products. Photo: Phan Anh

Consumption Support

In 2021, the agricultural product market faced many difficulties, including OCOP products. Accordingly, the province was very interested in supporting OCOP subjects in developing consumption channels. Specifically, during the year, the province conducted a survey, inaugurated and put into operation 3 locations of displaying and selling the OCOP products at the headquarters of the Provincial Farmers' Association: Buu Long Tourist Area, Bien Hoa City, and Da Han Waterfall Tourist Area, Trang Bom District. The above areas are displaying and selling 61 Dong Nai OCOP products. Currently, the province is building an infrastructure system to introduce and sell OCOP products at Co.op Mart Bien Hoa supermarket. Propaganda activities about OCOP programs and products are interested in a variety of forms and communication channels are also aimed at promoting and advertising activities for OCOP products.

Provincial Department of Industry and Trade has focused on supporting OCOP subjects in all trade promotion activities. As a result, many OCOP subjects signed contracts with supermarkets and trade centers; Through product promotion, most businesses have good revenue growth. In addition, the province also promotes the program to support OCOP subjects to participate in consumption channels on e-commerce platforms.

Specifically, the Department of Industry and Trade is supporting and guiding OCOP product owners to register to join the Dong Nai e-commerce websites such as: Voso.vn e-commerce platform, which currently has 36 OCOP products of 6 participants; Smartgap.vn e-commerce website has 18 OCOP products of 2 subjects.

Trong Duc Cocoa Company Limited, located in Phu Hoa Commune, Dinh Quan District is the first 5-star OCOP potential product company in the province awaiting evaluation and recognition by the Central Government. In addition to exporting raw cocoa beans, this enterprise has dozens of deeply processed products such as chocolate, cocoa liquor, cocoa powder, etc., which are sold well in both domestic and export markets. Many years ago, the company's products entered large supermarket systems and were voted by consumers as high-quality Vietnamese goods. Mr. Dang Truong Khanh, Director of Trong Duc Cocoa Co., Ltd said: “Thanks to building a chain of links from organic raw material areas to investing in deep processing, the enterprise exports well to demanding markets. After a difficult period, due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, businesses are attracting talents, focusing on developing and expanding markets. The goal of the business is to target the high-end and very high-end market, competing on quality and taste, not on cheap prices. This is also the foundation for businesses to build their own brand for Dong Nai cocoa, and Vietnamese cocoa in general in the international market."

In order to standardize and develop OCOP products according to the value chain, the province launched the contest "Designing trademarks and industrial designs for products of the One Commune One Product Program". In addition, the province continues to support businesses and cooperatives to build and apply the standard system of VietGAP, Global Gap, and HACCP. Deploy and support the pilot application of the traceability system to help businesses, organizations and individuals trace the origin of manufactured products and goods.

Phan Anh