Confident with OCOP products brought to market

While many localities and collective economic units are still struggling to learn and choose products to build OCOP products, Ms. Ngo Thi Ha (in Can hamlet, Van Phu commune, Dai Tu) has quickly learned information and built her own OCOP products. For Ms. Ha, the biggest "gain" since having the OCOP star is to help traditional products confidently enter the market and compete with other products.

Thanks to compliance with safety and quality procedures, Ms. Ha's family's products are widely favored by customers.

Born, raised and attached to the land of Ky Phu (now Van Phu commune), Ms. Ha's family has been attached to the rice fields and tea plantations since early on. In addition, this land is also famous for an indispensable dish in every family's Tet meal, which is nem chua.

Around 2000, when giving some of her acquaintances homemade nem chua, Ms. Ha received good feedback and requests to order more. From there, she came up with the idea of ​​making nem chua to sell on the market.

Nem chua is made from pork and pork skin with some spices, without mixing any powders, so it has a natural pink color and rich sweet taste of meat, not dry and hard when eaten. That is also the reason why Ms. Ha's family's nem chua product is favored by many diners.

The product is ordered by many local people and customers from far away for use and as gifts. Always confident in the quality of her family's nem chua, when introducing the product at some local festivals, fairs and exhibitions, Ms. Ha was disappointed when customers refused because of the reason "no label, unknown origin". From then on, she determined to find a way to build a brand for her family's nem chua product.

After learning and receiving support from the district and commune, Ms. Ha registered to participate in the "One Commune One Product" (OCOP) program. She shared: To successfully build an OCOP product, food safety must be the top priority. The process of producing nem chua must follow strict procedures from the stage of selecting raw materials (pork, spices...) of clear origin and good quality. The processing stage must ensure food hygiene and safety. At the same time, comply with food preservation principles.

Every day, Ms. Ha wakes up at 4:00 a.m. to go to the slaughterhouse to select pork. At home, she has built a closed processing area and has strict requirements on food hygiene and safety during the process of making nem chua. In particular, the process of processing nem chua is carried out meticulously and carefully by marinating it with traditional spices and always ensuring the requirements of equipment and tools that come into direct contact with the product and the producer complies with the conditions of thorough hygiene and disinfection, before, during and after each production.

Ms. Ngo Thi Ha always focuses on ensuring food safety and hygiene processes in the production of nem chua products that meet OCOP standards.

In addition, she also invested in purchasing many types of machinery to serve the production process, such as: large capacity meat slicers, refrigerators, vacuum machines... to produce nem chua. Therefore, Ms. Ha's family's products are considered safe food. In 2023, Ngo Thi Ha's business household was evaluated, classified and decided to be recognized by the People's Committee of Dai Tu district as a 3-star OCOP for nem chua products.

Currently, on average, her family produces about 3,000-4,000 nem chua per month. During the peak Tet holiday, it can reach up to 1,000 nem/day. In addition to nem chua, Ha's family also produces some ham and sausage products and sells cooked food, earning about 200 million VND/year.

For Ms. Ha, whether it is an OCOP product or not, one principle she always maintains is "ensuring safe products reach consumers".

Ms. Ha said: The process of building OCOP products and promoting the nem chua brand has helped me realize one thing, when you make safe, quality products and confidently deliver them to customers, it is the most effective guarantee for your brand.

Mr. Tran Quang Tien, Chairman of Van Phu Commune People's Committee, said: Ms. Ha's family is the only individual business household in the commune with products that meet OCOP standards. Thereby contributing to the formation of diverse products in the locality and is a model with the prospect of replication in the area. In the coming time, the Party Committee and the commune government will step up propaganda so that other traditional nem chua producers in the area can replicate the OCOP product development model to increase people's income.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/kinh-te/202503/tu-tin-voi-san-pham-ocop-dua-ra-thi-truong-7100d66/