One Commune One Product Program spreading sustainable values

Not only awakening the potential and strengths of local products, Khanh Hoa's OCOP products are increasingly deeply processed, environmentally friendly and vividly represent the colorful agricultural picture of the province.

Over the years, the OCOP program in the province has continuously grown, making an important contribution to upgrading products in rural areas. Each product carries its story that the person who made it wants to convey. Through that, users of the product can also learn more about some aspects of the culture, style, and unique features of the people and the land where the product is made.

The Provincial OCOP Council scored agarwood products in 2024.

For example, the incense sticks give off a gentle, pure scent, reminiscent of the tranquility of nature. The story of Khanh Hoa agarwood also conveys a journey of looking for agarwood, an ancient traditional profession of many generations of Khanh Hoa agarwood workers. Then the bird's nests and a variety of bird's nest products not only reflect the level of deep processing of this typical product of Khanh Hoa, the OCOP story of bird's nest is also a journey to open up and develop this famous product from island bird's nests, to the technology of developing strong bird's nests in Khanh Hoa. OCOP products also include the famous delicious fish cakes in Van Ninh or fresh mango, dried mango, dried mango in Cam Lam, seaweed … All have interesting stories about the uniqueness, characteristics as well as the efforts to build and develop products of OCOP producers.

In two mountainous districts of Khanh Son and Khanh Vinh, the story of OCOP products is a journey to escape poverty, rise to get rich and is also proof of the increasingly improved production level of farmers here with durians, green-skinned grapefruits…

On the development journey of Khanh Hoa OCOP products, their producers continuously upgrade their products associated with implementing the requirements for developing a green, circular, and climate change-adapting agricultural economy that Khanh Hoa is pursuing. Almost all fruits such as durian, green-skinned grapefruit, mango, guava, custard apple, garlic, etc. that have achieved OCOP stars are produced according to VietGAP standards. For handicraft products, consumer goods, the origin of the product, the production process, and production standards must be clearly demonstrated.

Tri Tin seaweed, the first 5-star OCOP of the province.

In addition, tourist models like experiential tourism, agricultural tourism, community tourism, eco-tourism, etc. have participated in the OCOP program.

Nguyen Thi Lan - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment said that the OCOP Program applies a system of comprehensive criteria and indicators to evaluate products in terms of quality, design and product story. All products have clear and proven raw material origins, applying advanced quality management systems, food safety, having standard packaging and labels, fully complying with legal regulations on environmental protection and along with that, the products are typical, endemic, and have clear regional characteristics. Outstanding OCOP products of Khanh Hoa include agarwood, bird's nest, seaweed, mango, durian, green-skinned grapefruit, seafood …

Accompanying the subjects in the process of perfecting the products, every year the provincial budget allocates funds to support the subjects; specifically, purchasing 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 websites to introduce products and sell online; designing packaging, product labels, registering codes, barcodes, electronic stamps (traceability), applying traceability systems; building product stories... In addition, OCOP products are supported with costs for participating in fairs and exhibitions inside and outside the province, points for introducing, promoting and selling OCOP products.

In 2024, the province allocated more than 10 billion VND to support product development. In 2025, most of the nearly 20 billion VND spent on the program will directly support producers to upgrade their products. In addition, each OCOP product will be rewarded by the provincial People's Committee. Products that achieve 3 OCOP stars will be rewarded 8 million VND from the provincial budget, 4 star ones will be rewarded 10 million VND and 5 star ones will be rewarded 15 million VND.

Now, the province has 309 OCOP products with 3 stars, including 1 achieving 5 national stars, 2 products with enough points to propose the central government to recognize OCOP with 5 stars, 43 products achieving 4 stars, and 263 products achieving 3 stars. In 2025, 252 products from 109 producers have registered to participate in the program. The target is that more 180 products achieving OCOP stars.

Hong Dang

Translated by T.T