After 3 years of implementing the ‘One product - One commune’ (OCOP) programme, up to now, the whole city has developed 64 certified products. Generally, when it comes to each criterion, it can be seen that these are all potential products showing off their own advantages and unique characteristics with their quality secured.
OCOP goods are having the “three-in-one” advantage when there are both production areas, promotion space and feasible access to international customers on the spot. Photo: Ly Truong
Such OCOP products as Ba Lieu sesame dry cake, Da Nang beef cake, Nam O fish sauce, Bac Dau fish cake and Hoa Nhon (pickled scallion heads) are all traditional brands that have soon formed in the market and ensured the criteria of “community values, traditional craft village values” proposed by the OCOP development project.
Da Nang has its own characteristics and advantages that other places don't have. Compared with other localities, the city does not have many large raw material areas and products are therefore not rich because the proportion of agricultural economy is not large in the economic structure of the industry.
However, in return, a great advantage is the large product consumption market, the number of international tourists and big events continuously taking place. The number of tourists is large and stable, which is a distinct advantage for the city's products to be able to have their quality enhanced and target exports.
OCOP products, which are considered a local identity brand, have received support from relevant agencies to ensure product standards and quality. Therefore, from the downtown Han Market to the souvenir shops, OCOP-starred goods are the right choice made by housewives.
For visitors, they find it easier to buy suitable OCOP items as souvenirs because they are also part of the taste of the destination. To be recognised to be labelled as OCOP, products must go through a process of evaluating and classifying products from district to municipal levels according to the set of criteria issued by the Vietnamese Prime Minister.
The rigorous survey and evaluation from the stage of idea selection, plan development and finalisation of evaluation and product classification records gets closer to reality.
According to statistics, so far, there have been 21 products with 4-star, 42 with 3-star products and one with 5-star OCOP certification. More than 90% of the OCOP products have been certified with trademarks, traceability stamps and barcodes whilst more than 60% of products have applied advanced quality management systems such as VIETGAP, ISO and HACCP.
Especially, over 90% of the OCOP products have been put on the e-commerce platforms and most of them are available on supermarket stalls and trade centres. Thus, OCOP certified products are not only supported to meet safety criteria but also catch up with commercial trends.
It can be seen that the OCOP programme is not only aimed at supporting small-scale producers to exploit the potential and advantages to expand markets and improve product value, but also to change perceptions in economic thinking of the agricultural and rural areas.
The programme not only creates a bright spot in agricultural economic development, but through exploiting the advantages of each locality in the future, it also promises to have a positive impact on the non-agricultural economy in the area.
After gaining momentum, in the period from now to 2025, the city aims to have 135 OCOP products recognised with 3 stars or more. At the same time, in order for all of the local wards and communes to have OCOP products, proper investment is required to arouse the strength of the community and the subject's resources.
To achieve the above goal, the city's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said it will continue to focus on major groups of solutions.
Focus will be on organsing production, prioritizing agricultural and non-agricultural products, services, key products, characteristics and advantages in each locality. In addition, the standardisation of products must be in the direction of developing typical, key and traditional products, especially those in time-honoured craft villages.
At the same time, heed must be paid to ensuring organic production, ecological agriculture to ensure food safety and traceability towards environmentally friendly products.
Also, solutions for digital transformation, trade promotion and communication activities to gradually improve the quality and brand of OCOP products in the market will also be taken into account.
In the future, given the strength in tourism and the digital economy, OCOP developers and craft villages will the right to dream of welcoming visitors on tours to experience traditional craft village and new products based on the application of science and technology with outstanding quality.
Reporting by Ly Truong - Translating by A.Thu
