Identify weaknesses and find ways to overcome them

The subjects actively participate in promoting the products. Photo: PV

Driving force for rural economic development

Mr. Nguyen Duc Choi - Head of Dien Ban Economic Department said that in recent years, the implementation of the OCOP program in the locality has achieved positive results. From 2018 - 2024, Dien Ban spends an average of 900 million VND per year (the province allocates 800 million VND, the town budget 100 million VND) to support the implementation of many stages of this program.

“Up to now, Dien Ban has had 34 products meeting OCOP standards, including 3 4-star products and 31 3-star products. In 2024, the town registered with the province to develop 9 new OCOP products and 6 products to participate in re-evaluation,” said Mr. Choi.

Mr. Ngo Tan - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that in order to effectively implement the OCOP program, from 2018 to now, the province's functional departments and authorities at all levels have actively coordinated to implement many tasks.

In addition to focusing on guiding businesses, cooperatives, cooperative groups, and individual households to register products for classification assessment, every year, relevant units in the province and district organize dozens of training courses for staff in charge of the OCOP field at all levels and other subjects.

The core content of the training courses is guidance on building and implementing production and business plans, product development; product registration and branding; trade promotion, product advertising...

Recently, at the conference to review agricultural production in the winter-spring crop 2023 - 2024, Mr. Truong Xuan Ty - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development informed that after nearly 7 years of implementing the OCOP program, in Quang Nam , there were a total of 325 entities registered to participate in the implementation; including 43 enterprises, 118 cooperatives and cooperatives, and 164 individual production and business households.

“Through participating in the OCOP program, many entities have gradually changed their awareness and paid more attention to improving product quality through investing in purchasing machinery and testing food safety and hygiene indicators...” - Mr. Truong Xuan Ty acknowledged.

From 2018 to 2024, the provincial budget has spent more than 70 billion VND for related sectors and local authorities to implement the OCOP program. Up to now, in Quang Nam, there are 407 products recognized by district and provincial levels as meeting OCOP standards; of which 61 products are ranked 4 stars and 346 products are ranked 3 stars.

Many weaknesses need to be focused on overcoming

In 2020, the moon cake products of Loi Pho confectionery production facility in An Lac village (Duy Thanh commune, Duy Xuyen) were recognized by the Provincial People's Committee as meeting 3-star OCOP standards.

Mr. Huynh Tan Anh (owner of the establishment) said that in previous years, his family's mooncake products were sold quite strongly, with an average monthly revenue of about 15 million VND. However, recently, the consumption output has dropped sharply, with monthly revenue only reaching about 2-3 million VND.

Mr. Nguyen Chi Cong - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Duy Xuyen said that at the end of 2023, Loi Pho moon cake product's certification of meeting 3-star OCOP standards expired, but Mr. Huynh Tan Anh's facility did not complete the relevant documents and procedures to request competent authorities to re-evaluate and recognize it. The reason is that the product's output is difficult, and Mr. Anh is old and weak, so he is not capable of production and business...

According to Mr. Tran Van Noa - Head of the Quang Nam Rural Development Department, out of a total of 407 products meeting OCOP standards of 3 - 4 stars in the whole province, there are currently 245 products with valid expiry dates and 162 expired products.

Among the 162 expired products, many products were not re-registered by the entities. Mr. Noa said that the reason for this situation is that many entities are old and weak, not capable of production and business, or recently, the consumption of OCOP products on the market has encountered many difficulties...

In recent years, there has been a situation where many entities have not focused on systematically developing plans or production - business and product development strategies, so the implementation of the OCOP program is still passive and confused.

The issue of concern is that some entities have financial difficulties, so investment in building infrastructure, purchasing modern machinery and equipment, and applying new technology to production activities is still limited. This leads to low product output and low product quality, making it difficult to compete in the market.

Notably, in many localities, the review and production orientation for entities registering to develop OCOP products are still confusing. The planning and construction of stable raw material areas have not received due attention; some products are seasonal, do not have stable, large-scale raw material areas, so they cannot meet the quantity and quality when the market has high demand.

Meanwhile, promotion work and market access capacity are still limited, so many OCOP product owners have not boldly invested and expanded production and business scale...

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/thuc-hien-chuong-trinh-moi-xa-mot-san-pham-ocop-nhan-dien-diem-yeu-tim-cach-khac-phuc-3136736.html