(GLO) - The OCOP program has become a "launching pad" in the entrepreneurial journey of many businesses, contributing to bringing Gia Lai province's distinctive agricultural products to the market.
Promoting agricultural entrepreneurship
Currently, many young people are choosing agriculture as a field to start their own businesses. To fuel this entrepreneurial activity, local authorities have implemented many practical support policies through the development of OCOP (One Commune One Product) products.
Recognizing the value of macadamia nuts in the Hai Yang area (Dak Doa district), in 2019, Ms. Mai Thi Nhung (village 1) boldly established a raw material area, gradually improving the quality of cracked dried macadamia nuts to develop an OCOP product. In addition to her family's 1 hectare of macadamia trees, Ms. Nhung also collaborated with 6 other households in the area, covering a total area of 6 hectares.
"I produce cracked dried macadamia nuts using a closed-loop process to strictly control product quality. However, my Kon Kong brand macadamia nuts still face many limitations in accessing the market."
"To go the distance, I focused on researching, learning, and investing in machinery and equipment to process macadamia nuts to meet standards in order to register for the OCOP Program. As a result, the Kon Kông cracked dried macadamia nut product received OCOP 3-star certification at the district level in 2024," Ms. Nhung said.
Driven by the desire to build a brand for local products and participate in the OCOP program, Mr. Nguyen Vu Phu Truong (Hamlet 5, An Phu Commune, Pleiku City) has achieved initial success with his perilla tea product. In early 2023, Mr. Truong developed a startup idea to process perilla tea according to VietGAP standards.
To secure raw materials for processing, Mr. Truong collaborated with six perilla-growing households in the village, cultivating nearly 9 acres according to VietGAP standards. By the end of 2023, his perilla tea product, under the Truong Phu brand, was recognized as a 3-star OCOP product at the provincial level.
Mr. Truong excitedly shared: “When my perilla tea product was recognized as a 3-star OCOP product at the provincial level, it quickly gained market access. Building on the success of perilla tea, I have researched and developed many other herbal tea products. All herbal tea products are processed into powder form and packaged in filter bags.”
With a selling price of nearly 1.3 million VND/kg, I export about 20-25 kg per month to the market, including various types of tea such as Centella asiatica, Perilla frutescens, and Passiflora incarnata… In the future, I will further refine some herbal tea products to move towards developing OCOP products. Along with that, I will build a sustainable medicinal herb raw material area.”
Seeking to find her own path in entrepreneurship, Ms. Pham Thi Binh (Ia Ve commune, Chu Prong district) was always concerned about how to enhance the value of crops through processing. In 2018, she began choosing lemongrass to process into lemongrass leaf tea products under the Nam Phuc brand.
She said: "In Ia Ve commune, people grow a lot of lemongrass but only harvest the stems, discarding the leaves. Meanwhile, the essential oil in lemongrass leaves is very good for health. Seeing how wasteful it was, I dried the lemongrass leaves to make a beverage. To create a delicious flavor for this tea, I combined it with stevia, green mung beans, ginger, custard apple, etc."
“Participating in the OCOP Program will help elevate the quality of products and build customer trust. I received enthusiastic support from the relevant authorities. Therefore, I quickly completed the application and my product received the provincial-level 3-star OCOP certification in 2021,” Ms. Binh shared.
Maximizing the potential and advantages of the locality.
In recent years, the agricultural startup movement in the province has increasingly developed and deepened. Along with this, the OCOP program has become a "lever" helping startup products reach a wider market, contributing to improving product quality and value, and increasing the income of rural people.
According to Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Cuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology: In the three years from 2021 to 2024, the province allocated nearly 46.3 billion VND to implement innovative startup activities.
From this funding, departments, agencies, and localities have organized a number of specific activities such as: organizing a competition for creative startup ideas, an innovation and startup festival, a youth startup festival, a women's startup festival, and a program to promote and connect the consumption of OCOP agricultural products for cooperatives in ethnic minority areas.
In fact, many young people, after graduating from university, return to their hometowns, taking advantage of local resources to start businesses. This trend is breathing new life into agriculture and rural areas with many innovative and effective models. However, entrepreneurship is not just about passion; entrepreneurs must master science and technology, production processes, and be creative in networking to build brands and promote products.
Therefore, linking agricultural startups with the OCOP Program is essential to promote entrepreneurial activities in agriculture and quickly transform the province's agriculture towards modernization.
Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Youth Union, Do Duc Thanh, stated: Agricultural entrepreneurship has become a vibrant trend and movement in the community, receiving special attention from agencies and social organizations. During the period 2021-2024, the Provincial Youth Union supported 112 innovative startup ideas, many of which were in the agricultural sector.
Through entrepreneurial activities, many of the province's distinctive products have been invested in, exploited, and processed into OCOP products, meeting market demands. This serves as a driving force to promote the rural economic development of the province.
Mr. Tran Van Van, Deputy Chief of the Provincial New Rural Development Coordination Office, said: From 2020 to the present, many businesses, cooperatives, and households have invested in exploiting and processing characteristic products such as coffee, pepper, dried bamboo shoots, sun-dried beef, macadamia nuts, rice, medicinal herbs, honey, cashew nuts, etc., creating products that have been recognized as OCOP 3-4 stars.
In particular, OCOP products are not only diverse in type but also affirm their quality and brand in the market. By the end of 2024, the entire province had 430 products recognized as OCOP 3-4 stars (including 70 4-star products and 360 3-star products).
"According to assessments, the province's OCOP products have developed very diversely. Businesses have focused on investing in improving quality and design to access the market. In addition, local authorities have also paid attention to supporting businesses in testing, packaging, and labeling, especially by promoting trade and product advertising activities, contributing to the sustainable production and consumption of characteristic rural agricultural products."
"In the coming time, the province will continue to promote, guide, and support businesses, cooperatives, and households in developing OCOP products to contribute to improving the efficiency of production and business," Mr. Van added.
Source: https://baogialai.com.vn/khoi-nghiep-tu-san-pham-ocop-post306061.html
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