OCOP products are displayed at the provincial coach station in Vĩnh Long City, Vĩnh Long Province. – VNA/VNS Photo Phạm Minh Tuấn

VĨNH LONG – Vĩnh Long Province is developing more products under the national “One Commune - One Product” programme.

The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province now has 159 of them, 100 with three-star products and 59 with four, after five years of implementing the programme, according to its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The highest rating has five stars.

On May 6 the province recognised 36 new four-star products.

Its OCOP products include food and beverages, handicrafts, herbal products, and rural tourism services.

The programme has helped improve the value of products and rural incomes, and promoted the role of the community in preserving and developing traditional products, according to the department.

It has helped develop many farming areas for producing clean materials and using technologies.

It has helped OCOP producers sell more and get higher prices.

Nguyễn Thị Trúc Linh, director of the Thuận Duyên Food Company Limited in Tam Bình District’s Tân Phú Commune, said she had been in the programme since its inception and had developed her production establishment into the current company.

In 2020 it registered for recognition for five products (tamarind fish sauce, chilli-garlic-vinegar-sugar sauce, chilli sauce with sesame, seasoned fermented fish, and Thai hot pot sauce) and they were recognised as three-star OCOP products.

She has since improved the quality of her products and packaging and developed a logo and brand name and more new products.

It now has nine three-star and four-star products, according to the director.

Trương Thành Dãnh, director of the department, said the programme promoted many provinces’ products, improved the community’s role, boosted production under value chains, developed start-ups, and promoted the household and rural economy.

OCOP producers should research to improve quality and develop brand names, he said.

Relevant authorities should strengthen advocacy about the programme and its implementation, he added.

According to Nguyễn Thị Diệu Hiền of the Somo Farm Cửu Long Joint Stock Company in Măng Thít District the programme is very meaningful and offers many benefits to participating companies.

It offers them support for trade promotion and advertisement, and is important for them to sell their products.

The Phước Hậu Safe Vegetable Co-operative in Long Hồ District has 35 members and cultivates various kinds of vegetables, mostly herbs, to Vietnamese good agricultural practices standards on 15.5ha, and harvests about 850 tonnes a year.

It grows three herbs recognised as three-star OCOP products.

Trần Văn Hiền, its director, said the recognition would enable the co-operative to introduce its products to consumers in the province and elsewhere.

The co-operative would maintain and improve its product quality to develop sustainably, he promised.

But the achievements notwithstanding, there are also shortcomings such as the small production scale and low management capacity of most OCOP producers and their lack of knowledge of the market economy and value chains, according to the department.

Most co-operatives, co-operative groups and households produce and sell their OCOP products through traders, but the province has many support policies.

Last year it created sites for displaying and selling OCOP products at the provincial coach station in Vĩnh Long City, the monument of late Prime Minister Võ Văn Kiệt in Vũng Liêm District and Coco Home Vĩnh Long tourism house in Long Hồ District. – VNS