BA RIA-VUNG TAU: Developing the regional OCOP products

Ba Ria-Vung Tau province has 5 potential products that have achieved 5 stars and is proposing the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to recognize them as National OCOP products. In addition, the province also has 16 products that have achieved 4 stars.

The One Commune One Product (OCOP) Event associated with restructuring of production and is being aggressively executed by the local authorities, production facilities, and local enterprises in Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province, following the goal of creating many high-quality products with the unique characteristics and competitive advantages of each reagion. Thereby, creating motivation to support the local authorities in building the sustainable new rural areas.

Efforts to achieve OCOP certificates

Although the business has been establishing and operating since 2019, the products extracted from Noni fruit of Phong Thao Agricultural and Pharmaceutical Import-Export Company Limited, located in Hoa Hiep Commune, Xuyen Moc District, Ba Ria City, Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province, Viet Nam has been available on the Vietnamese market and exported to the Korean market.

Nevertheless, achieving the OCOP certificates of the province is not easy as it requires the products to be strictly and tightly examined.

Mr. Pham Van Phong, Company Director, states that there are two of the corporate products – Noni juice and Noni essential oil are being examined to become the OCOP products of the province.

In order to have the stable crop production, until now, the total production area has been increased by 10 hectares to 70 hectares, compared to the begining stage. Currently, the organization is able to produce 25 tons of Noni juice and 500 liters of Noni essential oil. Those products are mainly exported to the Korean market and only a few of them are being sold in the domestic market.

In order to penetrate the international markets, Mr. Pham Van Phong has spent over 6 billion Vietnamese dong to invest in the new and modern automatic machinery to produce the products from Noni. Therefore, the company can export its products to Thailand and Cambodia.

By having the new and modern automatic machinery, the business is able to export 40 containers of products every month, instead of 15 containers per month in previous years.

The products extracted from Noni fruit of Phong Thao Agricultural and Pharmaceutical Import-Export Company Limited have been affirming their quality and reputation in both of the domestic and foreign markets.

In addition, Trung Nhan Caterpillar Fungus Company Limited is the production company which has a farm located in Phuoc Tan 4 Hamlet, Tan Hung Commune, Ba Ria City, Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province, Viet Nam. Trung Nhan has positioned itself as the quality-based brand following the international quality standards. Thus, the business is continuously expanding its production capacity, improving its production process, in order to satisfy the strict requirements from the high-end markets.

Although the company’s production facility has only been in operation for approximately 2 years, it has been well received by consumers. By having roughly 20 modern seedling production and cultivation rooms for Cordyceps, the three products of the organization such as Gold Cordyceps X3 , Ruby Cordyceps X3 and Premium Cordyceps X3 are being registered as the OCOP products of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, and are being evaluated by the province’s authorities.

Mr. Nguyen Nhat Nhan, Head of Sales Department and responsible for production at Trung Nhan Caterpillar Fungus Company Limited, said that the company has registered its products as the OCOP products of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province in 2021.

In order to affirm its quality and reputation in the market, as well as achieving the OCOP certificates, the company has invested heavily in the farm from the production stage including factory construction, mordern technology to the attractive packaging design. Particularly, the business pays so much attention to the quality of products, so it has achieved the Certificate of Vietnam’s Food Safety Regulations, VietGAP Certificate, and U.S. FDA Certificate.

Avoid developing freely

With the determination to bring the typical products of the commune to the OCOP event, in recent times, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province has concretized and executed many guidelines, policies to encourage businesses to invest in rural agriculture, connect and consume the local products, develop the rural industries. The OCOP event has been receiving direct attention and direction from the country’s political system at all levels from the central to the local levels.

Until now, Ba Ria-Vung Tau has 5 business entities with 21 products being approved by the People’s Committee of Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province to have the OCOP certificates by 2021. Among them, there are 5 potential products being achieved 5 stars certificate and are waiting for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to evaluate and recognize as the National OCOP products. Moreover, there are 16 products being achieved 4 stars certificate.

Mr. Vu Ngoc Dang, Deputy Manager of the Rural Development Department (Ba Ria-Vung Tau Department of Agriculture and Rural Development) stated that the agricultural sector recommends the OCOP product owners to avoid widespread development, focusing on quality insteade of quantity to develop and promote the products methodically and fundamentally; in particular, focusing on the key agricultural products of the province to have the specific directions, avoid rampant development and failure to maintain OCOP certification.

Also according to Mr. Vu Ngoc Dang, in the upcoming time, the agricultural authorities will continue supporting the economic organizations and household production units in executing the regulations related to food safety, registration procedures and product quality declaration. At the same time, supporting the cooperatives, cooperative groups and production households to build the safe production models according to VietGAP, organic…; Deploy the set of evaluation criteria for OCOP to local entities.

Ba Ria-Vung Tau is a locality with many unique products, so there is a huge potential for developing the OCOP products. This is a great opportunity, not only affirming the standards, quality and tradition of the local products, but also contributing to the change in mindset, practices in production, application of science and technology, commodity labels and brand building of the local authorities, farmers and enterprises in the province.

Nhi Hoang (Vietnam Plus)