OCOP Program 2024: Further support to develop products

In the process of completing and upgrading products to meet OCOP criteria (One Commune One Product Program), along with the regular support and guidance of OCOP officials at all levels, supporting subjects to develop products has contributed to the results of this program in Khanh Hoa province.

In 2024, the whole province has 187 products registered to participate in the OCOP program. In addition to strong products such as agarwood, bird's nest, durian, green-skinned grapefruit, mango, fish sauce, seafood..., this year there are also many relatively new agricultural products, such as custard apple, star apple, ruby guava, dried squid, dried shrimp, anchovy... Out of more than 12.6 billion VND of the provincial budget supporting localities to implement the program, more than 10 billion VND is reserved to support for product development, including contents such as product standardization related to packaging design, labels, code registration, barcodes, electronic stamps, traceability systems, testing of food safety and nutrition indicators, website development, product story development, HACCP and VietGAP quality management systems...

Delegates visit an OCOP booth at the 2024 collective economic summary conference.

In Khanh Vinh district, this year, Phan Thinh business household in Song Cau commune, in the process of upgrading green-skinned grapefruit products, has received financial support from the State (along with counterpart funds from the subject) to print product packaging labels and take samples for analysis and testing of product quality. In addition to the support contents as mentioned above, Son Thai Green Agricultural Cooperative (Bo Lang village, Son Thai commune) also received budget support for VietGAP certification costs, contributing significantly to helping Son Thai green pineapple products achieve 62.09 points, a 3-star OCOP score.
In Van Ninh district, the State budget has allocated more than 1.26 billion VND to support entities with products participating in the OCOP program in 2024. For example, Dang Trung Doan business household (Van Long commune) received a total of 157 million VND to help the establishment register codes and barcodes, build an electronic information page to introduce products, and sell online; build and apply a quality management system and design packaging and labels, build product stories, and test products, helping this entity upgrade and complete 3 products made from agarwood recognized by the Provincial People's Committee as 4-star OCOP.

According to the leader of the Working Group assisting the Provincial OCOP Evaluation and Classification Council, participating in the OCOP program, the subjects are supported by the State with a part of the cost to complete and upgrade the products. Accordingly, the provincial budget supports a part (the subject corresponds according to the prescribed rate) for the subjects to purchase machinery and equipment for production, harvesting, preliminary processing, processing, packaging and preserving products; testing food safety indicators, nutritional indicators; building and applying advanced quality management systems; building an electronic information page to introduce products, sell online; designing packaging, product labels, registering codes, barcodes, electronic stamps (traceability), applying the traceability system; building product stories... In addition, OCOP products are supported with costs for participating in fairs and exhibitions inside and outside the province, introducing, promoting and selling OCOP products.
Over the past year, the OCOP program has also implemented rewards for producers with OCOP star products. This is a recognition, encouragement, and motivation for producers to continue upgrading their products to maintain and upgrade their ranks after achieving OCOP stars. Accordingly, in 2024, the provincial People's Committee has supplemented the budget for localities to reward producers achieving OCOP stars in 2023. 

This year, the province strives to have more than 100 OCOP products. As of December 30, the province has 244 OCOP products with 3 stars or more that are still valid for recognition. Of which, 1 product has a score of 5 stars, 28 products have 4 stars, 215 products have 3 stars. There are 127 entities with recognized OCOP products, including 55 enterprises, 22 cooperatives, 14 cooperative groups, 36 business households. 

HONG DANG
Translated by T.T