Customers experience OCOP products at the OCOP product event in An Giang Province. Photo baoangiang.com.vn

AN GIANG – The Trade and Investment Promotion Center of An Giang Province coordinated with the People's Committee of Long Xuyên City and relevant departments to open the "OCOP product event and An Giang Province specialties for consumers".

The four-day event from November 16-19 aims to create conditions to support businesses in boosting production and consuming products, developing business and promoting products and brands to consumers inside and outside the province.

At the same time, the event will introduce the image and characteristics of An Giang through its unique culinary culture, traditional dishes and folk cakes to residents and tourists.

There are 76 booths of businesses, production facilities, cooperatives, and traditional craft villages of An Giang Province divided into six zones including area featuring Provincial OCOP, an area for handicrafts and agricultural specialties, a food court promoting record-setting dishes, space to display OCOP products, craft village products and local agricultural products.

Director of the provincial Trade and Investment Promotion Center Lê Trung Hiếu said: “The event of OCOP products and specialties of An Giang Province is held with the purpose of helping businesses to restore production, develop business and promote OCOP products. Through this event, we want to survey customer tastes to support businesses and OCOP product owners to perfect and develop products that are competitive in the market.”

“We prioritise inviting establishments and businesses with OCOP products, specialty products, startup products, craft village products, handicrafts, souvenirs, tourism products and services to participate. For culinary businesses, unique dishes will be displayed, served, and recognised by organisations to create highlights for diners when attending the event. Along with that, it will create conditions for visitors to experience actual products, and enjoy promotions and gifts offered by businesses and product owners to express their gratitude to customers,” Hiếu said.

During this event, the organizing committee will also carry out activities such as awarding certificates of OCOP products and records, trade connection activities between businesses, and street performances to make an impression on event visitors.

An Giang Province is increasingly focusing on the national “One Commune-One Product” programme in combination with tourism to improve rural incomes.

After more than four years of implementing the programme, the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province has 92 OCOP products rated between three and five stars, including food and beverages and handicrafts.

It has five co-operatives, one co-operative group, 21 enterprises, and 35 establishments that produce them.

OCOP has helped enhance the value of products and helped producers increase revenue, according to the province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Nguyễn Sĩ Lâm, director of the department, said the programme has helped the agriculture sector switch from small scale production to developing value chains for agricultural products.

The province has also developed OCOP products in combination with developing rural tourism to improve the lives of people, preserve local cultures and protect the environment.

An Giang aims to develop each OCOP product as a cultural messenger of its respective locality and representative of local traditions and customs, he said.

The products fully exploit their cultural values to attract tourists under the province’s strategy of developing rural community tourism together with building new-style rural areas, he said.

The province has developed tours to places that produce OCOP products such as the brocade weaving village of the Chăm ethnic people in Tân Châu Town, iron products and milk rice paper making villages in Phú Tân District, a carpentry village in Chợ Mới District, and an incense making village in Long Xuyên City.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has approved a pilot model for OCOP community tourism in three communes in Chợ Mới District’s Cù Lao Giêng riverine island.

The province's departments of Agriculture and Rural Development and Culture, Sports and Tourism will develop rural tourism models comprising of farms and OCOP products.

The province will implement trade promotion activities to boost the sales of OCOP products related to rural tourism.

An Giang has beautiful landscapes, including mountains, festivals and historical and cultural sites that attract millions of tourists every year.

The national new-style rural area programme has improved the look of the province’s rural areas and the lives of people there.

The province targets having 70 new OCOP products by the end of this year and 170 more by 2025, with priority for products related to rural tourism. – VNS