Bring OCOP products closer to consumers

​(E. Portal of Dong Nai) - Many high-quality OCOP products in the province are now not only dominating the domestic market but also being exported in large quantities. OCOP subjects are implementing many solutions to bring these quality products closer to consumers.

Ms. Cam Van's herbal incense products introduced at the conference on science and technology

Reaching to many markets

With the desire to open the outlet for products made from lotus, in 2000, Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Le (Nhon Trach district) established a facility to purchase all the lotuses from local people who refused to buy by a Taiwanese company because they did not meet some requirements. After that, Ms. Le processed lotuses into products such as lotus tea, lotus powder, dried lotus seeds...

In order to spread the product far, in June 2020, Ms. Le associated with 50 households in the district to grow and consume lotuses, established Truong Phat Agricultural Service Cooperative. At the same time, carried out procedures to create Truong Phat brand logo, OCOP, ISO 2018 certificates... for products made from lotuses.

Up to now, Truong Phat Agricultural Service Cooperative has a product processing factory with an area of 200 square meters with 50 workers. The cooperative has processed 19 lotus products, of which 15 are OCOP certified (13 products with 4 stars, 2 products with 3 stars).

Ms. Le confided that over the past 20 years, she ate with lotuses, slept with lotuses, and always struggled to find a way out for the lotus trees in her hometown. In addition to the acquired knowledge, Ms. Le often went online or went to other places to practice to learn from experience and came up with optimal solutions for the development of the cooperative.

Up to now, products made from lotuses of Truong Phat Service Cooperative have been sold by 68 agents across the country. Not only that, these products are being put into Dong Nai's supermarkets; connected with the supermarket system of Ho Chi Minh City for consumption.

Meanwhile, herbal incense products of Ms. Le Thi Cam Van, (living in Trang Dai Ward, Bien Hoa City, Director of Vfarm Trading and Service Co., Ltd.) are being made efforts to conquer difficult markets and come closer to consumers.

Ms. Van shared that her goal when producing herbal incense was health of consumers. Incenses made from herbs such as: lemongrass, cardamom, grapefruit skin, cinnamon bark skin... Herbs dried, ground into powder, mixed to make incenses, the smell was completely natural, without any chemicals.

“Due to being made from herbs, with good quality and good image, the price of a bunch of herbal incense sticks is 3 times higher than that of unbranded incense sticks. Despite the high price, I think when people are more aware of the importance of health, they will not hesitate to choose herbal incenses, "- Ms. Van said.

In addition to incense products, Ms. Van's facility is preparing to launch a product line of bud incenses for home inhalation, home inhalation powder, and cold shower...

Customers from Malaysia learn about black Wood-Ear Mushroom of Nutriword Nutrition World Co., Ltd​

Bringing black Wood-Ear Mushroom far away

Ms. Dao Ngoc Hong Thanh (Xuan Thien commune, Thong Nhat district) said that her family had a tradition of growing black Wood-Ear Mushroom. In the past, her family and households around the area mainly sold raw Wood-Ear Mushroom to traders. Those traders then brought the mushrooms to the Chinese market through unofficial channels. However, the purchase and sale of black mushrooms with traders was not favorable because traders often forced the price of mushroom growers, and the value of raw mushroom products was not high.

In 2009, Ms. Thanh and her husband established Nutriword World Nutrition Co., Ltd. to be more proactive in the output of products. At the same time, improving the value of the products for export to countries such as Korea, Germany, the Netherlands, France ... Up to now, the black Wood-ear mushroom product of Ms. Thanh's family has achieved 3-star OCOP, moving up 4 stars.

“Depending on the needs of customers, the company exports the right amount of Wood-ear mushrooms, but ranges from 5-10 tons of mushrooms per month. To meet the needs of the market, in addition to self-produced mushrooms, we also order from people growing mushrooms in the area with an output of 50-60 tons of mushrooms/year. Thanks to that, the company has mushrooms to export all year round," said Ms. Thanh.

Ms. Hong Thanh added that through research, she learned that black Wood-ear mushrooms contain many nutritious nutrients, especially minerals. Mushrooms have the effect of strengthening the immune system, detoxifying the body and preventing aging. In particular, black Wood-ear mushrooms have the effect of supporting cholesterol reduction and improving blood circulation, suitable for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians, can be processed into many dishes in family meals.

In order for the product to meet the quality standards of food safety and hygiene, Nutriword Company has researched to cultivate, purchase, preliminarily process and pack black Wood-ear mushrooms according to the criteria of 3 none: no fertilizer, no chemical drug, no preservative. Preliminarily cleaned Wood-ear mushrooms have an expiry date of up to 2 years if being stored properly.

Not only interested in profit issues, Ms. Thanh and her husband are also very interested in environmental protection solutions in production and business. During the production of wood-ear mushrooms, the water is treated through a 3-chamber tunnel before being discharged into the public waste system. The steam will disappear by itself, and civil waste will be collected and treated by the company. Particularly, waste from raw materials (mushroom feet) collected by people in the area to raise cinnamon and make fertilizer.

Ms. Dao Ngoc Hong Thanh, Deputy Director of Nutriword World Nutrition Co., Ltd. said: “Currently, 90% of the company's black wood-ear mushrooms production exported to European countries and many other countries and about 10% sold in the country".​