In Gia Lam district, Da Ton commune has long been famous for its tradition of growing green vegetables. In order to increase production value, since 2018, Ms. Duong Thi Thuan, Director of Da Ton General Service Cooperative, has mobilized 12 members to establish a cooperative, building a modern greenhouse system to grow hydroponic vegetables, herbs and organic vegetables.

On an area of ​​1 hectare, the cooperative has arranged 8 greenhouses, a processing area and a product showroom. By 2022, more than 10 types of vegetables of the cooperative will be evaluated and classified as 4-star OCOP. However, limited area and urbanization have caused agricultural land in Da Ton to increasingly shrink.

Faced with this challenge, since the beginning of 2023, the cooperative has expanded its raw material area by linking with farmers in Moc Chau (Son La province) to grow 3 hectares of vegetables. Thanks to this, the cooperative supplies 1.8 tons of high-quality green vegetables every day. All products, after being processed and packaged, are distributed to supermarkets and clean food stores. Thanks to this solution, 12 cooperative members have stable jobs with an income of about 6.5 million VND/person/month.

In Chuong My district - where many traditional craft villages are concentrated, with great potential for developing OCOP products, the rattan and bamboo weaving villages here have many advantages, but are currently facing great difficulties in terms of raw materials. Previously, raw materials such as rattan and bamboo were easily purchased from the northern mountainous provinces, but now this supply is seriously lacking, forcing them to import at high costs and lacking initiative.

Faced with this situation, production households in Chuong My have cooperated with research units to process and process raw materials from papaya, squash, and banana trees. Artisans have created handicraft products from these materials, meeting export requirements and initially being accepted by the market. However, this is only a temporary solution. In the long term, craft villages hope that Hanoi city will support the construction of sustainable raw material areas to meet more stable production needs.

Phu Vinh and Chuong My handicraft products are popular with many people.

According to the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the city currently maintains 159 chains from production to consumption of agricultural, forestry and fishery products, including 53 chains of animal-based products and 106 chains of plant-based products. In the 2020-2024 period, Hanoi has cooperated with 43 provinces and cities nationwide to build more than 1,000 safe food supply chains, an increase of 22 provinces and 211 chains compared to the previous period.

Hanoi aims to increase the number of OCOP products meeting 5-star standards in the coming time, while promoting the development of value chains in the direction ofeconomycircular and green OCOP. To do this, OCOP products need to meet strict food safety standards.

According to a report by the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, 100% of current supply chains are certified as meeting food safety requirements. Notably, 40% of these chains apply production standards such as VietGAP, HACCP, ISO 22000 or organic.

The city has also formed many concentrated production areas, including rice, vegetable, fruit tree, and livestock growing areas... Famous specialty products such as royal water spinach from Linh Chieu village (Sen Phuong commune, Phuc Tho district), Huong Tich apricot (Huong Son commune, My Duc district), or Tich Giang tangerine (Phuc Tho district) have great potential for developing OCOP products.

However, these specialty plant varieties are facing the risk of degradation and difficulty in expanding production towards commodities. Therefore, protecting and developing specialty plant varieties is an important solution to promoterestructuringagricultural sector, creating high-value products and promoting the agricultural value chain.

With its existing potential and active support from authorities at all levels, Hanoi is facing the opportunity to strongly develop OCOP agricultural products. The application of science, technology and innovation will help OCOP entities expand raw material areas, improve product quality, and increase competitiveness in domestic and international markets.

In particular, developing raw material areas associated with processing and connecting consumption markets according to the value chain will contribute significantly to promoting the OCOP program, while improving the lives of rural people, and actively contributing to the development of sustainable agricultural economy.

Linh Nguyen