ARTICLE 3
Bến Tre Province focuses on ‘One Commune, One Product’
programme
March, 13/2023 - 10:10
The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Bến Tre plans to develop
more products under the national “One-Commune-One Product”
programme to promote local advantages and improve rural incomes.
A booth showcases Bến Tre Province’s OCOP products at Bến Tre
Coconut Food and Trade Fair in 2022. — VNA/VNS Photo Huỳnh Phúc
Hậu
BẾN TRE — The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Bến Tre plans
to develop more products under the national “One Commune, One
Product” programme to promote local advantages and improve rural
incomes.
OCOP products are commercial products and services such as food and
beverages, handicrafts, herbal products, and rural tourism. They are
classified from one to five stars.
The province now has 200 OCOP products, 110 of them with three stars
and 90 with four. Of them, 16 have the potential to be upgraded to five-
star status.
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Đoàn Văn Đảnh, director of the provincial Department of Agriculture
and Rural Development, said the goal is to get another 45 certified as
three-star or above this year besides getting 30 upgraded.
To achieve the targets, the province would strengthen advocacy to
improve the programme’s quality and efficiency, he added.
After checking various products that have the potential for getting
recognition, authorities will instruct their producers to register under
OCOP.
It will assist individuals and organisations with developing new
products, community-based tourism products and tourism destinations to
capitalise on advantages like landscapes, culture and craft villages.
It will encourage young people, women and others who are researching
speciality products to develop them into OCOP items.
The department will develop organic agriculture, zone areas for growing
materials for making OCOP products and deep processing models for
such products to improve quality and value.
It will boost trade promotion, showcase OCOP products at fairs and
other events, and find regular outlets for them.
It will foster the use of advanced techniques and assist producers with
upgrading facilities for making and preserving OCOP products.
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Nguyễn Văn Bé, director of the provincial Department of Industry and
Trade, said his agency would help households and co-operatives making
OCOP products participate in fairs and exhibitions.
The department and the province’s Tourism Promotion Information
Centre would display OCOP products at popular tourism destinations in
the province and around the delta, he said.
Bến Tre, the first province in the region to adopt the OCOP programme,
has high-quality products such as green skin and pink flesh grapefruit
and those made from coconut such as candy, jam, handicrafts, and
cosmetics.
The country’s largest coconut producer boasts among others Hoàng Yến
coconut candy and coconut cake and candy made by the Vĩnh Tiến
Company Limited.
Đặng Thị Trúc Lan, director of Vĩnh Tiến, said the company makes 500
tonnes of coconut products a year.
Co-operatives have played an important part in developing OCOP
products, with 10 of them making such products.
They include the Bến Tre Green Skin and Pink Flesh Grapefruit Co-
operative in Châu Thành District’s Phú An Hoà Commune, whose fruit
has received four stars.
It has 101ha under the grapefruit, which it grows to Vietnamese good
agricultural practices (VietGAP) standards, and has an output of over
1,000 tonnes a year. — VNS
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