Lack of concentrated raw material areas to develop OCOP products

Initial results

Although newly established and operating for more than 1 year, Tinh Sang Duong Agricultural Cooperative in Yen Hop commune (Quy Hop) currently has 30 product lines, of which 3 products have achieved 3 OCOP stars including: Cold-dried pennywort powder, Solanum procumbens tea bags, Tinh Sang Duong honey. In particular, the cooperative has formed a large and stable raw material area to develop production and processing. Accordingly, the cooperative has rented 3 hectares of land and cooperated with 50 households in the area to grow 8 hectares of medicinal herbs, annually supplying about 30-50 tons of raw materials for the cooperative to process.

Mr. La Van Duy - Director of Tinh Sang Duong Agricultural Cooperative said: "Since the cooperative established the raw material area, it has helped change the production method from small-scale to concentrated production in the direction of closed value chain linkage, creating conditions for cooperative members to improve technical processes and apply advanced quality management programs in production. At the same time, it helps the cooperative create a larger quantity of products with more consistent quality, contributing to ensuring the maintenance of the supply chain to serve consumers."

Through this cooperation and production linkage, it has created conditions for people in mountainous communes to boldly change the crop structure, improving economic efficiency per unit area. Mr. Chu Ngoc Tan - Vice Chairman of Yen Hop Commune People's Committee said: "Currently, medicinal plants are being planned and expanded by local authorities, and the output has been guaranteed by local cooperatives. Initially, they are grown in home gardens, and if the results are good, they will be expanded to hill gardens, highland areas, and planted under forest canopy. Currently, the whole commune has planted 8 hectares of medicinal plants of all kinds. This model not only helps people ensure raw material output, but also helps cooperatives to be self-sufficient in standard raw materials; thereby, promoting the conversion of crop structure, creating stable income for people, and preserving precious medicinal plants in the commune".

With 15 products “starred” OCOP, a wide consumer market, large quantities and many products exported abroad, to create a stable and sustainable source of raw materials, Bemota Group (Vinh city) has linked with farmers to supply input materials for itself. Among them, there are many products using honey for processing, specifically each year, more than 1,000 tons of honey are needed as input materials.

To have a stable source of honey, ensuring quality, the enterprise supports households with materials (shirts, hats, raising boxes, honey spinning boxes, etc.), supports farming techniques, honey harvesting techniques, and honey filtering to ensure quality; at the same time, supervises the beekeeping of households, and purchases all honey output to ensure quality for farmers at a price committed to be higher than the market price.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hoc - representative of the enterprise said: "Currently, we have linked with more than 60 beekeeping teams in Thanh Chuong, Tan Ky, Nghia Dan districts, Thai Hoa town and are expanding to other localities such as Anh Son, Con Cuong, Tuong Duong... The link will help people have a livelihood and income, and enterprises will have a stable source of raw materials, ensuring quality...".

Or like Pu Mat Pharmaceutical Company always has a stable source of raw materials, because the company signed a contract with the people of Con Cuong district for at least 20 hectares to produce and supply input materials all year round. With a reputation for product quality and stable raw materials, the company produces and trades profitably, creating jobs for many local workers.

Need to form concentrated raw material areas

One of the characteristics of OCOP products is that they must have strong local characteristics, associated with production organization, forming large-scale concentrated commodity production areas, associated with building stable raw material areas. From there, increase investment in technology, scientific and technical advances in processing and preserving high-quality products. Currently, in most localities, OCOP products have been formed and built, along with the formation of raw material areas to serve the production of OCOP products.

For example, in Thanh Chuong district, there are currently 20 OCOP products with 3-4 stars such as: Thanh Chuong black star fruit associated with black star fruit growing areas in Thanh Nho, Hanh Lam, Phong Thinh communes...; Thanh Chuong green tea associated with Thanh Duc tea growing areas; Nhut associated with jackfruit growing localities... According to the plan, in 2023, the district will focus on building 27 more OCOP products and by 2025 there will be 100 OCOP products.

Mr. Le Dinh Thanh - Vice Chairman of Thanh Chuong District People's Committee said: "Most of the localities that develop OCOP products already have available raw material areas. However, there are no concentrated raw material areas, most of them are still fragmented and small. Besides, the construction of standard raw material areas, according to organic, safety, VietGAP, GlobalGAP, HACCP criteria, building growing area codes and growing area brands for OCOP products... have not received due attention from localities and OCOP subjects".

It can be affirmed that input materials are a matter of survival for many OCOP producers and cooperatives in rural areas. “You can only make paste if you have flour”, if there is a lack of raw materials, production will be limited, the scale will not be expanded, and market demand will not be met. Meanwhile, not all businesses can rent land for production; or have to rent at high costs and for short rental periods.

Therefore, some establishments have had to buy raw materials from other provinces, local materials only account for a small proportion of OCOP products. For example, Thien Minh Duc Group is a company that produces many good medicinal herbs but is always passive about raw materials; or a functional food manufacturing company also imports most of its raw materials from other provinces, imported raw materials for production.

In addition, businesses and OCOP subjects also admit that the connection between them and people in supplying inputs for OCOP product production is unsustainable. Mr. Tran Dinh Toan - subject of 5 OCOP products in Vinh city said: "When planting, the company provides technical guidance and sets out clear criteria, but they do not strictly follow the care process, when inspected, it does not meet standards, and does not ensure quality. There are also cases where, despite having agreed with each other, when the market price goes up, people smuggle it to traders instead of importing it to the company...".

In recent times, in order to gradually form and develop large-scale and stable concentrated raw material areas, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has advised the Provincial People's Committee to submit to the Provincial People's Council Resolution No. 18/2021/NQ-HDND regulating policies to support and encourage agricultural and rural development in Nghe An province, period 2022-2025. In particular, support to promote the formation and development of concentrated, large-scale commodity production areas, associated with product preservation, processing and consumption; accumulate and concentrate land to develop agricultural production; support key crops and livestock for concentrated production in the direction of goods; encourage the development of typical products with local advantages, production in the direction of goods...

At the same time, focus on directing localities to develop new products based on the advantages of raw material areas and restore and promote traditional craft villages and occupations; apply science and technology solutions and digital transformation to develop and control the quality of raw material areas of OCOP products.

In order for the "One Commune One Product" Program to make great strides, become a lever in shifting the economic structure in rural areas and open up many opportunities for linkage in building production chains, increasing the value of agricultural products, localities must plan each type of tree and animal suitable for each ecological region and each locality; promote comparative advantages in geography, terrain, soil, climate, hydrology, especially to create rich sources of raw materials; identify raw material areas, build growing area codes and growing area brands for OCOP products.

In addition, entities need to improve their financial capacity, warehouse systems, production lines, processing, etc. and proactively manage product output when expanding raw material areas to fully exploit the potential and advantages of each locality.