OCOP products tell stories

Not only are they typical local products, OCOP products also carry inspiring startup stories of young people who aspire to preserve and enhance local identity. From traditional crafts to unique cultural values, they have breathed life into each product, turning them into “ambassadors” telling stories about their homeland and people on their journey to the “big sea”.

Combining tradition and modernity

Born in Linh Chieu vermicelli village, Trieu Son commune, Trieu Phong district, a traditional craft village of over 100 years, in 2015, Nguyen Dang Ton Canh and two friends, Nguyen Huu Vinh and Nguyen Phuoc Anh, decided to give up their dream jobs in big cities to return to their hometown to build a clean vermicelli brand.

Mr. Canh shared that his great-grandmother was one of the founders of this craft village. Thanks to making vermicelli, the villagers have a stable income and their children can go to school. However, with the increasing demands of life, traditional vermicelli making has gradually revealed its shortcomings, especially the issue of food hygiene and safety. Therefore, Mr. Canh and his colleagues were determined to found Van Linh Clean Vermicelli, a clean vermicelli brand that is not only delicious but also absolutely safe for consumers.

After a long period of research, Van Linh Clean Vermicelli facility has launched the market with dried fresh vermicelli products under the Nhat Linh brand with many outstanding advantages - Photo: LA

According to Mr. Canh, the difference of Van Linh Clean Vermicelli is the raw materials used to produce the vermicelli. The rice is selected from the rice fields that produce rice according to organic and VietGAP standards of Quang Tri Trading Corporation.

The vermicelli production process is done manually, combined with modern technology, from milling flour, coating flour to creating chewy, soft vermicelli, meeting food hygiene and safety standards. The closed production process also helps the product always achieve high quality, while protecting the environment. After a long time of dedicated promotion, Van Linh clean vermicelli is now available in most supermarkets and clean food stores in the Central region, from Nghe An to Quang Nam.

Every day, about 500 - 700 kg of fresh vermicelli with the brand name Van Linh Clean Vermicelli are sold to the market. In particular, Van Linh Clean Vermicelli has been certified with 3-star OCOP and produced according to HACCP standards, helping customers feel more secure when using it.

From the success of Van Linh fresh vermicelli, in early 2023, Mr. Canh's team began researching making dried fresh vermicelli. Sharing about this new idea, Mr. Canh said that in the past, every time sales were slow, he saw his parents dry fresh vermicelli in the sun and then store it to eat gradually.

Dried vermicelli can be kept for a long time but when processed, it still retains the characteristics of fresh vermicelli. From there, he came up with the idea of ​​drying fresh vermicelli to overcome the limitations of fresh vermicelli such as difficulty in transporting over long distances, short preservation time...

After a period of research with dozens of batches of noodles being discarded due to failure, at the end of 2023, Mr. Canh's team confidently launched the Nhat Linh brand of dried fresh noodles, which is easy to use and has a shelf life of up to 12 months. Currently, about 5,000 boxes of Nhat Linh dried fresh noodles are released to the market each month. The product is also in the process of competing for OCOP products and has the potential to reach the provincial 4-star standard.

“The combination of tradition and modernity has opened up a new direction for development for the Linh Chieu vermicelli village. If in the past, the fresh vermicelli products of the village were only supplied to neighboring localities, now the products have reached out of the province, creating consumer trust thanks to the outstanding product quality and creativity in production,” Mr. Canh affirmed.

Keep the scent of soapberry

Starting to participate in the OCOP program since 2018, up to now, Nhien Thao Quang Tri Company Limited has had 5 products that have achieved 4-star OCOP certification including: Herbal soapberry extract, Soapberry floor cleaner, Grapefruit oil hair spray, Soapberry filter bags and Herbal mouthwash. The special feature of these OCOP products is that they not only create quality products from natural ingredients but also build close ties with ethnic minorities in the area.

Ms. Tran Thi My Dung, Director of Nhien Thao Quang Tri Company Limited, said that to have thick, smooth and shiny hair, since she was a child, her grandmother and mother boiled soapberry water to wash her hair. Growing up with the scent of soapberry, after graduating from university and having a stable job, she had the idea of ​​processing natural herbs into convenient products for users.

Starting in 2014 with the soapberry shampoo filter bag product, by 2017 she had invested in building a factory, machinery, and established Nhien Thao Quang Tri Company Limited to produce soapberry shampoo extract. According to Ms. Dung, like soapberry filter bags, soapberry extract also has the fragrance of soapberry, grapefruit peel, basil... familiar wild flowers. The product not only retains traditional values ​​but is also a convenient time-saving solution for modern women.

Ms. Tran Thi My Dung (2nd from right) guides ethnic minorities in harvesting soapberry properly - Photo: LA

Not only stopping at product quality, with the mission of "aiming for natural, safe products, contributing to sustainable development", and at the same time creating jobs for women in the highlands, Nhien Thao has implemented a cooperation program to purchase natural materials such as soapberry, soapberry, grapefruit, lemon, kumquat... with about 300 ethnic minority households.

These are traditional ingredients that play an important role in the company’s health and beauty care products. Accordingly, Nhien Thao commits to purchasing raw materials at stable prices and higher than market prices, while providing technical support and instructing farmers on how to harvest and preserve them sustainably to ensure the quality of the raw materials.

According to Ms. Dung, linking with the local community not only provides high-quality raw materials but also helps Nhien Thao fulfill its social responsibility. Through cooperation programs, the company encourages people to plant new trees and protect native plants, avoiding the depletion of natural resources.

The soapberry and soapberry forests are now not only a source of livelihood for the people but also a “nursery” to preserve the local ecosystem. Nhien Thao also coordinates with non-governmental and local organizations to implement environmental education programs, helping people better understand the value of sustainable development.

Up to now, after more than 6 years of starting up, the products of Nhien Thao Quang Tri Company Limited have won the trust of consumers and have been distributed throughout the country. On average, each month the company brings to the market more than 5,000 bottles of soapberry shampoo and about 10,000 products of grapefruit, lemon, orange essential oils, and soapberry floor cleaner.

“My wish is that when each person uses Nhien Thao's shampoo and essential oil products, they will not only preserve memories, bring us back to our childhood, back to the arms of our grandmothers and mothers, but also have the aspiration to build an ecosystem to help women in the highlands have stable jobs,” Ms. Dung shared.

Enhance the value of agricultural products

Mr. Tu Linh Vu, CEO of Tu Phong LLC, said that peanuts are one of the main crops in localities such as Cam Lo, Gio Linh, Vinh Linh, Trieu Phong with an annual cultivation area of ​​about 3,000 hectares. The largest of these is Cam Lo district with an area of ​​1,000 - 1,200 hectares, with an annual yield of 1,500 - 2,000 tons of peanuts.

However, peanut consumption is mostly purchased by traders and processing businesses at unstable prices; no organization or business stands up to sign a contract to consume or produce peanut products. Faced with this situation, after many years of studying the experience of peanut oil production of domestic factories, in 2016, he decided to build a factory to produce peanut oil and peanut by-products under the brand name Super Green, which is pressed purely from peanuts grown in his hometown of Cam Lo.

Production process according to ISO 22000 - 2018 standard at Tu Phong Company Limited - Photo: LA

One of Tu Phong's strengths is its close connection with peanut farmers. Currently, the company has 30 hectares of production according to VietGAP standards in association with the Quat Xa Agricultural Cooperative Group, Cam Thanh Commune, with an annual harvest of about 120 tons of peanuts, producing about 40 tons of finished products, bringing in revenue of about 6 billion VND.

According to Mr. Vu, growing in the sunny and windy land, peanuts here have high essential oil content and are rich in nutrients. The superiority of the product is that it is made from 100% local quality peanuts, pressed purely from 2.5 kg of peanuts to produce 1 liter of oil, especially the product does not use colorants or additives. In addition, the use of peanut oil does not contain cholesterol, has a high antioxidant content to help prevent cardiovascular disease and cancer, and prevent aging has been certified by the authorities. In addition, taking advantage of modern machinery, the company also supports the purchase and processing of peanuts according to the requirements of local people.

Mr. Vu said that currently, the company's products such as pure peanut oil, pure sesame oil, peanut butter, and gac oil are all honored to receive 3-star to 4-star OCOP certification at the provincial level. Although compared to similar products on the market, Super Green branded products have higher prices, they are still popular in the market.

In addition to clean agricultural stores, Super Green peanut oil is also available on the shelves of large supermarket chains such as Co.op Mart and Aeon Mall. “In the coming time, the company will continue to expand the factory scale, improve the production line to increase processing capacity, research to improve product quality, and produce new products.

At the same time, we will expand our links and sign product consumption contracts with farmers in a sustainable manner, aiming to accompany farmers to focus on quality production," said Mr. Vu.

Le An

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/san-pham-ocop-ke-chuyen-191189.htm