Many local specialties earned OCOP certification in 2025

In 2025, the Dong Nai Provincial Evaluation and Classification Council for the “One Commune One Product” (OCOP) Program, held meetings and recognized an additional 44 OCOP products. Notably, many local products and key crops and livestock specialties of localities were newly certified, including many items achieving 4-star and 5-star OCOP ratings.

Member of the Provincial Party Committee and Vice Chairwoman of Dong Nai People’s Committee Nguyen Thi Hoang (second from left) exchanges views with Thi Khrui (left), Director of the Bu Lach Grassland Organic Cashew Agricultural Cooperative (Tho Son Commune), at the 2025 Dong Nai Provincial OCOP product appraisal and recognition conference. Photo: Binh Nguyen.

The OCOP Program has truly gone in depth, contributing to the richness and diversity of Dong Nai’s OCOP products, while also building brands for local specialties and competitive products of localities.

A diverse range of “one-of-a-kind” specialties

Among the OCOP products in Dong Nai that were newly certified or re-certified in 2025 are many local specialties that are key crops and livestock of the province, including many “one-of-a-kind” local products.

Notably, An Khang Food Production and Processing Company Limited (Long Thanh commune) has four OCOP products, including roasted civet coffee (pure roast), freeze-dried durian, freeze-dried wet jackfruit, and freeze-dried mango. Thanh Mai Breed Produce and Trading Co., Ltd. (Xuan Phu commune) has the red pheasant eggs product. The ANNA Dragon Fruit household business (Dau Giay commune) has four products: Anna fermented cashew juice, cashew wine, kumquat wine, and fermented kumquat juice. Nui Cui Agricultural Cultivation and Processing Facility (Gia Kiem commune) has two products: organic “Buddha’s hand” bananas and organic vegetables. The Bu Lach Grassland Organic Cashew Agricultural Cooperative (Tho Son commune) has the “rau nhip” vegetable product. Thuan Huong Production Trading Co., Ltd. (Thong Nhat commune) has products including soft-dried mango, soft-dried mango with chili salt, and crispy dried mango. Phuc Bao household business (Nhon Trach commune) was re-certified for Phu Hoi tea. In addition, many other key products of the province such as processed cashew products, mango, and bird’s nest have achieved 4-star OCOP certification and have potential to reach 5-star OCOP.

To date, the province has 460 OCOP products from 286 entities, including 11 five-star products, 89 four-star products, and 360 three-star products.

Tran Thanh Xuan, Director of An Khang Food Production and Processing Co., Ltd, said: “The company supplies products including freeze-dried fruits, freeze-dried yogurt, pure coffee, and high-quality roasted and ground civet coffee. In particular, wet jackfruit is a very delicious Vietnamese specialty, but fresh products are very difficult to export. I chose to invest in planting more than 10 hectares of wet jackfruit and producing freeze-dried wet jackfruit (which no one has done yet), with the aim of not only selling this specialty to consumers nationwide but also exporting it to the global market. In fact, this specialty has been highly appreciated by many foreign partners, and we currently already have partners placing orders to export this product to Canada and Australia. In addition, other products of the company such as freeze-dried lychee, freeze-dried Cat Chu mango, and civet coffee are all Vietnamese specialties processed to create higher added value.”

The “rau nhip” vegetable of the Bu Lach Grassland Organic Cashew Agricultural Cooperative (Tho Son commune) has just been certified as a provincial OCOP product. Thi Khrui, Director of the cooperative, said this is a forest vegetable specialty of the S’tieng and M’nong ethnic communities. It is not only a delicious vegetable but also a valuable medicinal plant with many health-supporting uses. Cooperative members intercrop rau nhip under cashew tree canopies, helping both to increase income and to preserve areas of cashew, which is a traditional specialty crop of the locality. The product is currently supplied to restaurant systems and safe food stores in many provinces and cities. The cooperative’s current production scale is about 16 tons of rau nhip per year, but supply still cannot meet demand, so the unit is continuing to work with farmers to expand the cultivation area of this specialty vegetable variety.

Opening way for local specialties to go farther

The results of implementing the Provincial OCOP Program, especially the achievements in 2025, clearly demonstrate that the program closely follows its goal of focusing on developing local competitive products associated with deep processing to increase added value. A key strength of certified OCOP products is that they all belong to the province’s key agricultural products and mainly use local raw materials. In particular, localities across the province not only focus on supporting OCOP entities in selecting and developing competitive products, but also pay attention to supporting investment in packaging, branding and promotion so that products have opportunities to expand consumption markets.

Tran Tuan Khanh, Director of Thanh Mai Breed Produce and Trading Co., Ltd. (Xuan Phu commune), said the company currently has two products, including pheasant meat and eggs, recognized as OCOP products. Thanks to the OCOP Program, the products have become known to the market. At present, these specialties are being well consumed by restaurants and supermarkets in major urban areas in Dong Nai province and Ho Chi Minh City. The market potential for this “one-of-a-kind” specialty remains very large. The company is stepping up the production of pheasant breeding stock and hopes to cooperate with many farmers to expand farming scale under linkage chains from production to consumption, so that this local specialty can become known to consumers nationwide.

Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment Nguyen Van Thang commented that OCOP entities have continuously improved product quality, paid attention to investing in equipment, machinery and technology, improved packaging and designs, applied digital transformation in production and business, enhanced product value, and earned increasing revenues; thereby contributing to job creation, income growth and poverty reduction in rural areas. Many OCOP products in the province have been successfully exported to demanding markets. These results show that Dong Nai’s OCOP products have gradually affirmed their positions, roles and momentum in rural development.

Member of the Provincial Party Committee and Vice Chairwoman of Dong Nai People’s Committee Nguyen Thi Hoang assessed that products participating in and achieving OCOP certification in 2025 were all formed from distinctive local advantages, clearly reflecting the orientation of developing OCOP linked to raw material areas and deep processing. Dong Nai’s OCOP Program is on the right track by focusing on developing competitive products associated with deep processing to increase value. These achievements result from the proactive and active involvement of departments, sectors, grassroots authorities and, in particular, the efforts of OCOP entities to improve their products.

However, after the administrative merger, OCOP in Dong Nai faces not only opportunities to expand its development space but also stricter requirements on quality and markets. The transition from “achieving stars” to “going farther” will be an important test, determining whether OCOP truly becomes the province’s new rural brand in the next stage. Therefore, OCOP entities must actively improve management capacity and business skills, proactively grasp market trends, effectively use state support resources, accelerate technology application, promote deep processing, strengthen linkages and connect with local raw material areas to form complete value chains, creating distinctive OCOP products with high value. This is considered an important review step as the provincial OCOP Program moves into a stage of in-depth development after the merger.

By Binh Nguyen – Translated by M.Nguyet, Thu Ha