Linking agricultural product consumption up with tourism

​(News Portal – Dong Nai) - Dong Nai is a region with a variety of products and agricultural goods. The province also has a number of famous long-standing craft villages as well as new craft villages that have been formed in recent years. Each village has its own unique characteristics, creating diversity in products and culture. 

These are the strengths that localities are focusing on exploiting. In particular, in addition to promotion and advertising activities to expand consumption channels for agricultural and local products in both domestic and export markets, developing agricultural and rural tourism is also a direction that many localities are investing in to attract tourists from near and far to their gardens, contributing to increasing consumption of agricultural products right at the place of production.

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Pork sausage making village in Thong Nhat District. 

Attracting tourists to craft villages and countryside

Dong Nai province is also an attractive destination for tourists because the province has no shortage of unique craft villages such as: Buu Long stone craft village, Tan Van pottery village (Bien Hoa city), fine art wood (Trang Bom and Xuan Loc districts); mushroom growing village (Long Khanh City); agarwood village (Tan Phu district)…

Craft villages that have been inherited through many family generations include the fine art wood villages of Trang Bom district. They have produced many famous wooden handicraft products such as sailboats, airplanes, cars, cyclos... The uniqueness of these products is that despite the raw materials are waste wood scraps, the final products are exported to many countries around the world generating high amount of profit. The fine arts wood village in Xuan Loc district has strengths in the line of wood sculptures made from tree roots and stumps. In addition to household products, artisans can also create many products such as statues, paintings, mascots...

Not only focusing on production, some fine art wood making establishments in Trang Bom and Xuan Loc districts have paid attention to promoting and displaying products in many provinces and cities across the country, turning them into tourist attractions. There are even facilities building product showrooms right at the production site to serve customers. This is also a meeting point for tourists to visit the product manufacturing process and buy them as souvenirs.

The newly agarwood craft village (Tan Phu district) was formed around 20 years ago, however, it is considered the largest agarwood craft village in the country. With hundreds of agarwood production facilities in Phu Trung and Phu Son communes, the village is providing products related to agarwood such as: seedlings, agarwood medicine, raw agarwood, essential oils, distilled water... That includes agarwood essential oil products that meet OCOP 4-star standards, which are consumed domestically and exported. This is also an interesting connection point for tourists when returning to Tan Phu mountain district of Dong Nai.

Director of Dong Nai Tourism Promotion Center Vo Thi Thu Trang said that the province was interested in the model of craft village development associated with tourism. In the immediate future, the center would coordinate with relevant departments, sectors, units and businesses to form and put craft villages combined with tourist attractions into operation. To make it easier to form tours, the tourism industry has selected craft villages such as: pottery, wood crafts, brocade weaving... On this basis, in the long term, related industries will continue to collaborate to build a plan for craft villages that is more professional and sustainable. 

Processing dried anchovies in Dinh Quan district 

Exploiting culinary craft villages ​

Dong Nai is the livestock capital of the country, not only providing a source of fresh meat but also attracting the development of the processing industry of products from meat. Many of the products come from long-standing craft villages such as: The traditional craft village of making spring rolls and meat floss has been continued for many generations in Gia Kiem commune (Thong Nhat district); banh chung making village in Ho Nai Ward (Bien Hoa City); villages making dried bananas and soft dried bananas in Thong Nhat, Xuan Loc...

Dong Nai is the top province in terms of banana growing area in the country. In major banana growing zones such as Thong Nhat district and Xuan Loc district, the profession of processing fried bananas, dried bananas... is developed with dozens of factories creating long-standing reputation traditional specialties made from bananas of Dong Nai.

Ben Nom hamlet (Dinh Quan district) is a fishing wharf and has a large number of households and establishments drying anchovies and other types of dried fish from fish caught and raised on Tri An lake. This is a traditional profession that has existed for decades in the locality. Among them, dried fish products attract many processing households and are a famous delicious specialty of Tri An Lake. This product of Phu Cuong River Dried Fish Cooperative Group (Phu Cuong commune, Dinh Quan district) has been certified with OCOP 3 and has also become a specialty that attracts tourists to this land.

Making Vietnamese pork roll is also a traditional profession, continued through many generations in Gia Kiem commune (Thong Nhat district). Currently, this locality has dozens of establishments processing sausages and patties as well as making pork floss, chicken floss and meat dishes. In particular, Gia Kiem pork roll craft village is famous for its delicious quality, products are supplied to many provinces and cities nationwide.

Local products participating in the OCOP program are focused on improving quality, design, and packaging. This not only helps local specialties increase recognition with consumers but also becomes a specialty that attracts domestic and international tourists.