On July 15, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment in coordination with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) organized an inter-regional high-level forum on the OCOP model. This is a ministerial-level forum, which will have the participation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment of Vietnam and more than 14 African Ministers.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Tran Thanh Nam said: "The One Commune One Product Program (abbreviated as OCOP), is a rural economic development program implemented within the framework of the National Target Program on New Rural Development. OCOP aims to arouse the specific potentials and advantages in each rural area, from land resources, local agricultural specialties, indigenous knowledge to traditional cultural values. Most importantly, the spirit of community building is the factor that creates the multi-dimensional value of the product.
From 2018 to present, the whole country has had over 16,000 products recognized as OCOP products, with about 9,000 entities participating in production, including more than 3,000 cooperatives. This is a very encouraging result, demonstrating the strong spread of the program".
The high-level dialogues at the workshop revolved around the model of "Each country, one priority product" (international OCOP version), aiming to increase productivity, enhance competitiveness, while clearly tracing the origin and expanding market access opportunities.
The forum focused on 3 main topics: Introducing Vietnam's experience in implementing the OCOP program; Discussion at the ministerial level on the contribution of OCOP to the Transformation of the agricultural and food system towards sustainability and resilience; Dialogue on enhancing the application of science and technology and initiatives for transforming the agricultural and food system.
Opinions from experience sharing spaces and successful lessons for OCOP program development, helping to increase market access, trade and investment, as well as improve the nutrition of specialty products.
It's not just one-sided sharing. This is also an opportunity for Vietnam to listen and learn from the experiences of indigenous people in Africa - a continent that is rising strongly, owning many types of unique agricultural products such as cocoa, coffee, cashew, cotton... This connection can open up the direction of building an inter-regional value chain, linking production, processing, consumption and even research cooperation, technology transfer between southern countries.
The open dialogue sessions are the premise for forming a multidimensional network of connections, between ministries, branches, between localities, between Vietnamese OCOP enterprises with African partners and international organizations such as FAO. These networks will maintain the momentum for action, turning cooperation commitments into projects, contracts, and common value chains.
