Hung Yen province: Cooperatives contribute to promoting OCOP product development

Many OCOP products of cooperatives are sold at the store selling and introducing OCOP products in Luong Bang town (Kim Dong)

As one of the typical cooperatives, leading in the OCOP program, Dong Thanh Vegetable and Fruit Production and Commercial Services Cooperative, Dong Thanh commune (Kim Dong district, Hung Yen province) has built an orange and grapefruit production model following VietGAP, with a scale of 30 hectares. With 30 members, the cooperative organizes production and closely monitors production stages, ensuring products meeting food safety standards. To date, the cooperative has one 3-star OCOP product, Hung Yen orange. Mr. Pham Van Quynh, Director of the cooperative, said: The cooperative’s annual orange output reaches about 200 tons. From 2021 until now, after being recognized as OCOP product, the cooperative’s oranges have traceability stamps, increasing prestige in the market, consumed more conveniently than similar products, and the selling prices are always higher than those of normal production about 10% – 20%.

Hoa Thien Phu General Production and Service Cooperative, in Nghia Trai village, Tan Quang commune (Van Lam) has taken advantage of the experience of traditional medicinal herb production and processing craft villages to create medicinal products with high economic value from chrysanthemum, marjoram, perilla, plantain… Not only applying science to care to increase productivity and quality of raw materials, the cooperative focuses on investing in medicinal products processing technology. In 2021, the cooperative’s chrysanthemum product achieved 3-star OCOP. Each year, the cooperative processes about 50 tons of fresh chrysanthemums, producing 10 tons of dried finished products. Ms. Do Thi Hoa, Director of the cooperative, said: The locality has many advantages to develop high-quality medicinal plants, of which the most prominent is chrysanthemum. Since the cooperative joined the OCOP program, there have been many positive changes in production and business. The cooperative is partially supported by the province to invest in equipment, machinery, and facilities to improve product quality. Particularly, chrysanthemum products are better known to customers, more convenient for consumption, annual revenue increases from 20% to 30%, member income increases from 10% to 15%/year.

According to information from the Rural Development Department, to date, the whole province has 228 products recognized as 3-star and 4-star OCOP products, including 46 4-star products and 182 3-star products. Among the 86 entities participating in OCOP in the province, 45 cooperatives have participated with about 80 products rated 3-star and 4-star OCOP. The cooperatives whose products are recognized are all typical and strong ones of each region and each locality in the province such as: Longan, turmeric, King Kong banana, early ripening hybrid lychee, Hung Yen’s Trung lychee, honey from longan flowers, dried longan, Hung Yen orange, Hung Yen lotus, chrysanthemum… The classification of OCOP products has encouraged and motivated cooperatives participating in the program to overcome limitations and continue to improve and perfect products, promoted production in linked chains and consumption, bringing higher economic value.

The OCOP program is a good opportunity for cooperatives to affirm product quality, increase competitiveness, and expand markets; contributing to boosting the restructuring of agricultural production towards increasing added value and sustainable development. The implementation of the OCOP program has created more motivation for cooperatives to boldly invest in developing advantageous products, gradually improving quality and meeting the standards of many different markets associated with the formation and development of appropriate production forms.

Comrade Le Van Thang, Director of the Department of Rural Development, said: Participating in the OCOP program, cooperatives have actively contributed to promoting production development in rural areas, implementing a group of criteria on production, income, poor households in building advanced new-style rural areas, model new-style rural areas, building product brands, creating motivation for sustainable development. In the coming time, the Department will continue to propagate, support and create favorable conditions for cooperatives to participate in the program; proactively invest in equipment, apply scientific and technical advances to production, ensure that criteria and conditions are met to be recognized as OCOP products…