Making palm sugar in the Thất Sơn region.
To date, An Giang province has 582 products recognized as OCOP 3-star or higher, including 14 OCOP 5-star products, 1 potential OCOP 5-star product; 52 OCOP 4-star products and 515 OCOP 3-star products.
Palm tree tourist garden
The merger of the two provinces opens up a common direction and policy for An Giang - a province with strengths in agriculture and fisheries. This creates favorable conditions for the province to develop and expand OCOP products and invest in upgrading already certified OCOP products.
Tourists visit traditional handicraft shops selling sedge grass in An Giang.
OCOP products in An Giang include handicrafts; beverages, food, herbal products… focusing on nutrition and aligning with the clean eating trend. Many business owners have leveraged the region's unique strengths to elevate their products to OCOP status.
In the Thất Sơn mountain range, the palmyra palm is a key economic crop that locals harvest year-round. While previously palmyra palms were used to make refreshing drinks and sugar, locals and businesses have now researched and developed a variety of additional products such as palm oil, nectar, and palm seed paste.
Bottled palm juice.
Mr. Lam Quoc Hung, Chairman of SBMart Joint Stock Company, specializing in clean coffee and tea, recently started producing palm sugar in Thoi Son ward, An Giang province, but has already succeeded in processing bottled palm juice with a long shelf life. Upon opening the bottle, the rich aroma of palm juice rises, promising a new breakthrough for this popular beverage.
Tourists visiting the Thất Sơn region often buy palm sap to drink because of its delicious taste. However, due to its tendency to ferment quickly and spoil easily, it cannot be stored for long periods, so businesses only sell it in small quantities within the area.
Mr. Hung uses creative thinking, combining modern science and national identity to create 100% pure palm sugar and sugar drinks that are deeply rooted in the traditional sugar-making culture of the Khmer people in the Bay Nui region. Mr. Hung's palm sugar and beverage products have gradually expanded into supermarkets and stores domestically and are also exported.
Mr. Hung shared: "I buy fresh, pure palm sap from the Khmer ethnic people, using the bark of the Sến tree to preserve it and create a refreshing drink and pure palm sugar. The bark of the Sến tree is unique; it has a bitter taste, but when combined with the sweetness of the palm sap, it creates a delightful sweetness."
Locals harvest the palmyra palm tree to make sugar and beverages.
Determined to dedicate himself to this tree that grows abundantly in the mountains and brings sweetness to life, Mr. Hung purchased a palm tree plantation with over 50 trees in That Son. Mr. Hung nurtured a project to develop clean and green agricultural tourism linked to the palm tree plantation, recognizing that the economic potential of this tree species has not yet been fully exploited.
That is, to bring tourists to experience watching the locals climb palm trees to collect palm sap, the processes of boiling palm sap into syrup, sugar cubes, and flower nectar… To let tourists visit the sugar mills, pour sugar into molds to make sugar cubes so they can better understand the famous traditional sugar-making craft.
Therefore, this helps tourists no longer wonder why pure palm sugar has a natural yellow color and flavor, even without using any chemicals to create color or flavor.
Model 22 opens up a direction for digital transformation in the development of tourism and regional specialties.
Heading back to the riverine region, An Giang province, with its two major rivers, the Hau River and the Tien River, and numerous smaller rivers and canals, experiences the July flood season, bringing with it a local delicacy: the linh fish. Residents in the upstream areas catch linh fish and ferment them to make the famous and delicious linh fish sauce; they also ferment linh fish to make fermented fish paste.
An Giang Fruit and Vegetable Food Joint Stock Company researched dishes made from the rustic yet delicious snakehead fish, such as snakehead fish braised with sugarcane, snakehead fish in tomato sauce, and steamed snakehead fish paste. Based on this research, they have processed these into canned products such as snakehead fish braised with sugarcane, snakehead fish in tomato sauce, and steamed snakehead fish paste.
Canned anchovies.
The coastal region of An Giang province boasts famous products such as Phu Quoc anchovy fish sauce, Phu Quoc ground pepper, Phu Quoc ripe pepper, Phu Quoc salt and pepper; Dien Tin ST25 shrimp rice, Dien Tin fragrant milk rice…
An Giang province annually welcomes tens of millions of tourists, creating opportunities for the consumption of OCOP products. According to Mr. Ngo Cong Thuc, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of An Giang province, in September 2025, An Giang officially launched Model 22, opening up a direction for digital transformation in the development of tourism, regional specialties, and the digital economy of households, closely linked to bringing OCOP products closer to consumers both domestically and internationally.
Model 22 is an initiative under the Government's Project 06, implemented to promote the local economy through digital transformation solutions. Model 22 focuses on key solutions, including deploying applications to support product traceability and authentication. Simultaneously, it connects with the e-commerce platform angiang.numbala.com, providing a specialized trading platform for products with verified and inspected origins.
An Giang province's OCOP products are diverse.
The province-wide implementation of Model 22 represents a crucial step from pilot testing to comprehensive expansion. Based on this, it opens up a strategic direction for the development of the local digital economy, aligning with the Government's Project 06 and Resolution 57 on national digital transformation by 2025, with a vision to 2030.
THANH DUNG
Source: https://nhandan.vn/an-giang-da-dang-san-pham-ocop-post932912.html
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