A fruit that is "making waves", achieving 5-star OCOP, what fruit is it?

To better understand the quality and production process of creating national 5-star OCOP products, we had a conversation with Mr. Le Ba Thanh - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Bac Giang province about this issue.

Bac Giang has lychee products that meet 5-star OCOP standards. On this occasion, could you please share the results of the OCOP program implementation and the secret for Bac Giang to confidently include lychee in the national OCOP assessment?

- The One Commune One Product (OCOP) program is one of the key programs being implemented by Bac Giang province to promote the rural economy in the direction of promoting internal strength and increasing value. This is also a solution that Bac Giang is associated with implementing the National Target Program on New Rural Development for the period 2021-2025 in an effective, practical and sustainable manner...

In recent years, the implementation of the OCOP program in Bac Giang has contributed to the economic restructuring, expanding production and consumption linkages of agricultural products, contributing to increasing production value for farmers.

Bac Giang litchi is evaluated and ranked as OCOP at the national level in 2024.

From these factors, Bac Giang province has coordinated with agencies, ministries and branches to develop policies on OCOP development, creating conditions for enterprises, cooperatives and entities to actively participate in developing OCOP products and up to now, the whole province has had 290 products meeting OCOP quality.

In particular, Bac Giang is the locality with the largest lychee growing area in the country. The quality of Bac Giang lychees is always stable and has a brand name in the market and is present in over 30 countries and territories.

Like this year's lychee crop, although it was affected by harsh weather and the yield decreased, due to the increasingly improved quality, the total revenue from lychee did not decrease but was even higher than in 2023. Up to now, we can confirm that Bac Giang lychee has brought great economic efficiency to agricultural production in Bac Giang province.

Achieving 5-star OCOP product will be an opportunity for Bac Giang litchi to reach out to the international market.

In particular, the fresh lychee product is packaged with a weight of 1kg by Hong Xuan Production and General Service Cooperative (Luc Ngan, Bac Giang). This is a long-standing lychee product, produced according to VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards, meeting both domestic and international market standards. With such product quality, we are confident that Bac Giang fresh lychee products meet the requirements of the National OCOP Evaluation and Ranking Council.

How do you evaluate the opportunities and economic efficiency when Bac Giang lychee achieves 5-star OCOP?

- As Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam once said, OCOP not only affirms its quality in the domestic market, but when recognized as a 5-star OCOP product, the product will have the opportunity to open up to the world market. In particular, the US market has recently accepted the quality of our OCOP products. Thus, this is a great opportunity to create a "reputation" for Bac Giang lychee in the international market.

For the first time, Bac Giang province has a product that has achieved 5-star OCOP, this is good news for the province and also a great opportunity for Bac Giang litchi to have the opportunity to expand its consumption market. Enterprises and cooperatives in the area continue to promote product development and deep processing.

In the coming time, the province will continue to invest to create more valuable and quality products. Not only in the field of food and beverage... but also in other fields such as combining OCOP products with tourism to create a multi-purpose value target for the agricultural sector, saving on resource use, protecting the environment as well as bringing sustainable economic efficiency.

In the coming time, we will continue to support Hong Xuan Cooperative to expand its area and organize associated cooperative groups, to have more quality lychee products to develop the domestic market as well as export, and at the same time support people to harvest and sell 5-star OCOP products.

This year, the weather was very harsh, affecting the yield of lychee trees. However, due to the improved quality of lychee, the value of lychee is higher than every year and the total revenue from lychee does not decrease but is even higher than in 2023. This shows that we need to research to improve the quality of lychee.

Not only lychee, in the coming time, Bac Giang province will continue to invest in promoting product quality improvement to have more OCOP products in the province.

Not only increasing the total output of agricultural products, we also need to focus on increasing the value of products through building links, expanding markets, creating conditions for businesses to qualify for export such as establishing area codes, packaging facilities, and issuing local policies to promote production and improve product quality.

This will help to sustainably consume agricultural products, not for the purpose of agricultural production, which will exhaust land and water resources as well as overuse fertilizers, affecting the land and environment, etc. That is the path that Bac Giang province has determined in the coming time.

From the achieved results, what is Bac Giang's orientation to develop OCOP products in the coming time, sir?

- From the effectiveness of the OCOP program, every year, OCOP products in Bac Giang province increase in both quantity and quality as well as expand the market, bring high economic efficiency, overcome the previous small-scale production.

Through cooperatives, enterprises, and entities, production and processing are invested in a systematic and large scale, creating production chains that bring high economic value. Bac Giang province will also focus on building long-term plans and policies to develop high-quality OCOP products in depth in the coming time.

Currently, Bac Giang province also has a policy to support the development of typical agricultural products. In particular, for the OCOP program, Bac Giang province has its own very practical and timely support and encouragement policy. That is, for each OCOP product recognized as 3 stars, the province will reward 50 million VND; for a product that achieves 4 stars, the reward is 150 million VND and for a product that achieves 5 stars, the reward is 300 million VND, thereby encouraging and creating conditions for entities to proactively use funds to continue to develop and improve the quality of OCOP products.

In the coming time, we will continue to promote product quality improvement to have more OCOP products in the province. Because, after all, improving product quality is the path to sustainable production, bringing better income to the people.

Source: https://danviet.vn/dac-san-noi-tieng-bac-giang-mot-loai-qua-dang-lam-mua-lam-gio-dat-ocop-5-sao-do-la-qua-gi-20240626114531528.htm