Facilitating the development of Agricultural Cooperatives

​Despite being an industrial province, Dong Nai is very interested in agricultural development, so it has achieved many impressive results, especially in supporting economic development of collectives and cooperatives.

OCOP products of Truong Phat Agricultural Service Cooperative (Nhon Trach District) participated in a trade promotion conference in Bien Hoa City. Photo by B. Nguyen

Accelerating in both quantity and quality

During the 20 years of carrying out the Resolution No. 13-NQ/TW on continuing to innovate, develop and improve the efficiency of the collective economy and 10 years of implementing the Law on Cooperatives, Dong Nai has put into practice many solutions to support the collective economy, the developed cooperative has gained many impressive achievements.

According to the report of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, up to now, the whole province has had 40 cooperatives whose land is leased by the government to build offices and transaction offices; 21 cooperatives have been allowed to borrow offices for branches. The localities have also lent 64 cooperative lands, and leased production land with an area of ​​over 574 hectares. In addition, there are a number of cooperatives operating in the field of aquaculture supported by localities in the form of assigning management and exploitation of the lake surface with an area of ​​​​463 hectares.

In which, the problem of capital shortage of the cooperatives is also concerned and supported. Specifically, over the past time, 73 cooperatives, cooperatives union, cooperative groups have borrowed VND171 billion from credit institutions in the province. In addition to accessing capital from credit institutions, there are 5 cooperatives borrowing capital from the Cooperative Development Fund with a total loan of VND3.7 billion. The Farmers' Support Fund of the Provincial Farmers' Union has given new loans to 2,958 households with an amount of nearly VND91.7 billion, of which many households are members of agricultural cooperatives.

As a result, in 2021, the whole province had only 22 agricultural cooperatives, which has now increased to 185 cooperatives with a total of 3,840 members, diversely operating in the fields of cultivation, husbandry, fisheries and general cooperatives mainly perform services for agricultural production, purchase and sell agricultural materials. The quality of cooperative activities is constantly being improved. In the whole province, there are 82 cooperatives ranked as good, accounting for 44.3%; the average type is 77 cooperatives, accounting for 41.6%, the weak cooperative rate is only about 8.6%.

​

OCOP products of Xuan Dinh Agricultural Trade Service Cooperative (Xuan Loc District) participated in the International Agricultural Fair - AgroViet in Ho Chi Minh City in 2020. Photo by B.Nguyen

Branding

 Cooperatives are also supported in branding by prestige and product quality to gradually gain a firm foothold in the market. Up to now, the whole province has had 20 VietGAP-certified cooperatives with an area of ​​818 hectares and 25 cooperatives are carrying out certification procedures and documents with a total area of ​​nearly 342 hectares; there are 3 cooperatives with GlobalGAP certification with 31.5 hectares; 1 agricultural cooperative meets the standards of organic agriculture with an area of ​​3.5 hectares.

 Cooperatives are also prioritized to be supported by the province in building trademarks and websites. So far, 13 cooperatives have been supported to build websites; 35 cooperatives to build trademarks. In support of trade promotion, the cooperatives are supported to participate in many activities such as: participating in the International Agricultural Fair - AgroViet, the trade village and OCOP Vietnam fair which takes place every year; organizing conferences to connect products with supermarkets, malls, wholesale markets for agricultural products and food, and Vietnamese selling points in the province, etc.

Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Mr. Tran Lam Sinh said that the national program One Commune One Product (OCOP) contributes to exploiting and improving the potential for agricultural development, especially in building the province's agricultural product brand. Over the past time, OCOP Dong Nai products have not only participated in connection and trade promotion programs in the province but also at national and international events. In which, the most prominent is that within just 2 years of implementation, the whole province has had 10 agricultural cooperatives with 21 products of OCOP standardized at 3 stars and 4 stars. Many cooperatives have been constantly expanding and enhancing OCOP products.

Truong Phat Agricultural Service Cooperative (Long Tan Commune, Nhon Trach District) is a prominent cooperative in the province because there are 7 products made from lotus seeds and nutritious cereal, which are recognized as 4-star in OCOP standards. Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Le, Director of Truong Phat Agricultural Service Cooperative, shared that before participating in the OCOP program, the cooperative's products were mainly supplied to markets or agents but did not have access to the system of supermarkets and modern retail stores. The OCOP program has greatly supported cooperatives in promoting their products. The cooperative has boldly invested in machines and equipment to standardize from processing to packaging; invest in changing the logo template, building the product's brand identity image to sell to supermarkets and modern retail channels. “The cooperative is still continuing to invest in upgrading OCOP products with the goal of increasing the market's brand awareness so that the product not only has a foothold in the domestic market but also participates in the export market,” said Ms. Le.

​