Cua Lo town strives to build OCOP products

Starting from traditional fish sauce products

To develop provincial-level OCOP products, Cua Lo town has submitted fish sauce product profiles of 3 establishments: Cua Hoi Seafood Processing and Service Joint Stock Company (Tan Hoi fish sauce contest product); Hai Giang 1 fish sauce processing village cooperative (Hai Giang 1 fish sauce contest product) and Song Lam service cooperative (Ngu Hai fish sauce contest product). All 3 of these fish sauce products have achieved 4 stars at the town level.
Hai Giang 1 Fish Sauce Processing Village Cooperative, formerly known as Hai Giang 1 Fish Sauce Processing Village, is one of the long-standing traditional fish sauce processing villages in Cua Lo town. The fish sauce products of the village have long been chosen by consumers inside and outside the province, especially tourists visiting the coastal town.

Cua Lo fish sauce is famous among tourists. Photo: Thanh Chung

Therefore, when the Hai Giang 1 fish sauce product was recognized by Cua Lo town as a 4-star OCOP product and is currently waiting for the provincial OCOP Council to appraise it, the villagers and cooperative leaders were very excited. Because for them, the fish sauce product meeting OCOP quality is once again affirming the traditional fish sauce brand of the craft village, and importantly, the products of the craft village will be known by many consumers, consumers will be more assured about the quality of the product. And when reaching the provincial OCOP quality, the product will certainly be able to "step foot" into the system of large supermarkets and large fairs.

In the process of building the quality of provincial-level OCOP products, the advantage is that Hai Giang 1 fish sauce craft village itself has a brand in the market and has been recognized with 4 stars by the OCOP Council at the town level. Currently, each year the craft village sells about 1,000 liters of various types of fish sauce to the market. Previously, households in the village mainly produced on a small scale, mainly selling to regular customers. In September 2000, the Hai Giang 1 Fish Sauce Craft Village Cooperative was established, attracting 84 households to participate, creating regular jobs for over 300 workers. In 2020 alone, the average income of workers reached 72 million VND/person, the products of the craft village participated in many fairs, and the customer base expanded...

Mr. Hoang Duc Thuong - Head of the Management Board of Hai Giang 1 fish sauce processing village (Cua Lo town)

WithHai Giang fish sauce 1In 2020, the fish sauce products of Song Lam Service Cooperative were also recognized by Cua Lo town as 4 stars and submitted documents for consideration of recognition as provincial-level OCOP products. Mr. Nguyen Van Huy - Business Department, Song Lam Service Cooperative said: "If the fish sauce products of Song Lam Cooperative are recognized as provincial-level OCOP products, it will be a favorable condition for the Cooperative to expand the market, especially to supermarkets and clean food stores nationwide. This is also the long-term direction that the Cooperative is aiming for."

Many support policies

Implementing Decision No. 729/QD-UBND dated March 12, 2019 of the Provincial People's Committee on approving the Project "One commune, one product in Nghe An province for the period 2019 - 2020, with a vision to 2030", the Economic Department of Cua Lo town has advised the Town People's Committee to issue decisions to establish the Steering Committee, the Product Evaluation Council, the Working Group... The Steering Committee of the Town's OCOP program has issued the Regulations on operation and assignment of tasks of the Steering Committee; Regulations on operation of the Town's Product Evaluation and Classification Council. On September 25, 2020, the Economic Department coordinated with the Political Training Center to open a training course for the subjects of the People's Committee Chairman, Vice Chairman, officers in charge of the OCOP Program of wards and production and business households in the area with a number of 100 people. The lecturer is the Deputy Head of the Provincial Rural Development Department.

Hai Giang 1 fish sauce is recognized as an OCOP product. Photo: Thanh Hien

Mr. Vo Van Ly - Head of the Economic Department of Cua Lo town said: Cua Lo has many products of craft villages, seafood production and processing facilities that are suitable for OCOP assessment criteria, products with characteristics of tourism products such as: fish sauce, shrimp paste, shrimp, grilled mackerel... However, in the implementation process, there are also many difficulties, such as Cua Lo town is not a locality that benefits from the National Target Program on new rural construction, so when implementing the OCOP program, it has not created momentum and drastic participation of local authorities at all levels (the program "One commune, one product" is a requirement in the criteria for new rural construction in the new period).

Cua Lo people process shrimp. Photo: Thanh Chung

In addition, funding for the implementation of the OCOP Program is not yet available. Most craft village processing facilities and production facilities still lack documents proving food hygiene and safety, qualified production facilities, environmental hygiene, quality inspection certificates, codes, barcodes, traceability stamps, product labels, etc.

In 2021, Cua Lo town will strive to develop 2-3 provincial OCOP products such as shrimp, squid sausage, and mackerel sausage. To support and encourage OCOP products, in addition to the province's policies, the town has also developed a project to apply science and technology in exploiting and processing clean products, creating products to serve tourists. Specifically, the town will have a support policy for each 3-star product (VND 30 million); 4-star (VND 40 million); 5-star (VND 50 million).

Charcoal grilled mackerel is an attractive dish of Cua Lo that is popular with tourists. In early November 2015, the Cua Lo Grilled Mackerel Production and Trading Association was established with 28 members. The Association has registered an exclusive trademark for products packaged using vacuum technology.

From there, promote propaganda work on mass media, especially the ward radio system, meetings for production and business establishments in the area to register to participate in the OCOP Program, soon complete the dossiers on trademark registration, codes, barcodes, traceability stamps, establishments meeting food safety and hygiene conditions, have environmental protection plans for production establishments... In addition, the town needs to arrange budget sources to support part of the funding to implement the town's OCOP Program in the coming time.