The “One Commune One Product” (OCOP) program has become a production development movement with strong influence in the agricultural and rural areas of the province, helping localities, enterprises, cooperatives, production facilities, etc. proactively exploit potentials, advantages and invest in improving and upgrading typical products, traditional craft villages into goods with high economic value. However, the OCOP product certificate is not valid forever but only has a term of 36 months, when it expires, it must be re-issued. Currently, the re-recognition of OCOP products after expiration is facing many difficulties and obstacles, which need to be focused on resolving.
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Up to now, Phu Tho has 237 OCOP products with 3 stars or higher. After being certified, OCOP products have met quality and food safety standards, are suitable for needs and tastes, create trust for consumers, are eligible to enter supermarkets, modern distribution systems and have the opportunity to reach large markets; contribute to the economic restructuring of rural areas, effectively implement the Agricultural Restructuring Plan and the National Target Program on New Rural Development.
However, according to regulations, OCOP product certification is only valid for 36 months from the date of the recognition decision. To continue using the OCOP product certification mark (OCOP logo with stars) printed or affixed on product packaging and labels when circulating and consuming on the market, these products need to be re-evaluated and recognized by competent authorities. By the end of 2023, there were 19 OCOP products with 3 stars or higher of 15 entities whose 36-month recognition period had expired, but only 8 products were re-recognized, the remaining 11 products were not requested for re-evaluation. The reason is that some entities are in the process of changing their logos and brand identities, improving packaging and labels to suit their business strategies in the new period; some entities are no longer producing and trading that product but have switched to trading other products.
In addition, some entities are reluctant to complete documents and procedures because it takes a lot of effort, time and cost, so they are not interested in proposing to re-evaluate and re-classify products. In fact, the OCOP products that have expired are mainly recognized since 2020 according to the old criteria, but now the Government has issued a new set of criteria with more stringent content and standards. In particular, 4-star OCOP products have some additional strict criteria on the environment, intellectual property, and quality certification, which are difficult criteria and take a lot of time to implement. Meanwhile, most of the entities producing OCOP products in the province have small and medium-sized production scales and weak economic potential, so investing and perfecting the process to meet the requirements is difficult.
According to the plan to implement the "One Commune One Product" Program in Phu Tho province, by the end of 2024, it is expected that 79 more products and product groups will be developed, standardized and upgraded to 3-star or higher, with a cumulative total of 305 products and product groups meeting OCOP standards of 3-star or higher by the end of 2024. Along with developing new products, re-evaluating and re-certifying expired OCOP products is also an important task to ensure both an increase in quantity and improvement in quality of OCOP products.
To effectively implement the goal, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has directed specialized departments to continue to guide and support entities to complete product development; prioritize support for entities that, after being recognized as OCOP with 3 stars or higher, have small production scale and have difficulty meeting the market demand to continue to maintain, improve, and enhance production capacity, ensure quantity and quality, and gradually meet market demand. Conduct a review of raw material area planning, select traditional, typical, and indigenous products... to develop OCOP products.
The Department of Agriculture focuses on coordinating with other departments and localities to promote information dissemination and popularization so that OCOP subjects can better understand the content, purpose, meaning and be responsible for maintaining and developing OCOP products; encourage and support subjects with documents and procedures to participate in the assessment and re-recognition of OCOP products when due.
Along with that, local authorities and functional agencies proactively increase support and guidance for facility and business owners to improve their sense of self-awareness and responsibility in implementing regulations to ensure the quality of OCOP products. On the part of the subjects, they also need to be more proactive in re-registering OCOP certification for expired products; pay attention to improving the quality and reputation of products to dominate the market.
Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen
Source: https://baophutho.vn/go-kho-trong-danh-gia-cong-nhan-lai-san-pham-ocop-220155.htm
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