Minh Dai Leverages Advantages to Drive Breakthroughs for OCOP Products

Tapping into existing inherent advantages, Minh Dai Commune is step-by-step elevating the value of its agricultural produce through a new production mindset. According to Comrade Hoang Anh Nghia, Chairman of the Commune People’s Committee, the locality identifies tea plants alongside characteristic agricultural products as the foundation for building value chains and driving breakthroughs for One Commune One Product (OCOP) offerings, thereby raising local incomes.

Turning Advantages into Commercial Commodities

Beneath forest canopies boasting rich natural floral sources, beekeeping for honey has become a livelihood closely bound to the natural conditions of Minh Dai Commune. With over 10 years in the craft, starting from just a few dozen hives, Ms. Hoang Thi Thom’s family in the Muong Vac Beekeeping Cooperative Group has expanded to over 500 hives. Evolving from a household model, local beekeepers united into the Muong Vac Beekeeping Cooperative Group with 13 members. By prioritizing natural nectar sources, sound husbandry processes, and product quality, the group’s honey earned a 3-star OCOP certification.

Ms. Hoang Thi Thom shared: “The honey is harvested from natural wild blossoms, ensuring pure quality. We aspire to continue upgrading quality so our product can achieve 4-star OCOP status.”

The story of the Muong Vac Beekeeping Cooperative Group demonstrates that natural advantages only truly transform into economic value when residents organize production, control quality, and build brands. This is also the path chosen by numerous production establishments in Minh Dai.

In late 2024, Ms. Dinh Thi Hue in Tan Lap Village registered to join the OCOP Program with dried kitchen-hung buffalo meat, dried kitchen-hung pork, and traditional cham cheo (ethnic dipping salt). Starting from familiar items in highland daily life, her Hue Bong Dried Meat Facility gradually perfected processing workflows, emphasizing food safety hygiene, packaging, and brand identity. In December 2025, the facility’s products were recognized with 3-star OCOP status. The OCOP certification became a milestone for the facility to standardize products, expand markets, and bring local specialties closer to consumers.

Ms. Dinh Thi Hue, owner of the Hue Bong Dried Meat Facility, confidently affirmed: “We preserve the characteristic flavor of traditional products while refining processing methods, utilizing vacuum packaging, and avoiding preservatives to guarantee quality and convenience when reaching the market.”

Hue Bong special cham cheo dipping salt achieved 3-star OCOP standards.

Generating Momentum from Value Chains

Starting from products with competitive advantages, Minh Dai Commune sets the goal of developing OCOP by enhancing quality and value rather than chasing numbers. For the 2026–2030 period, the commune strives to develop 2 to 3 new 3-star OCOP products while upgrading 1 product to 4-star OCOP status.

To realize this objective, local authorities focus on supporting producers in developing raw material zones, standardizing production processes, enhancing product quality, developing cooperatives and cooperative groups, and step-by-step forming linked chains from production to consumption. Currently, Minh Dai has 14 cooperatives, 13 of which operate effectively. Products such as Kinh Nu tea, salt-steamed chicken, and wild forest honey have earned OCOP certification, generating added value for agricultural produce and opening up economic development avenues aligned with local advantages.

Comrade Hoang Anh Nghia, Chairman of the Minh Dai Commune People’s Committee, emphasized: “The commune identifies leveraging the advantages of tea plants and characteristic agricultural products to construct value chains. Alongside product quality improvement, the locality will focus on building raw material zones, supporting producers in perfecting products, and expanding markets, thereby elevating people’s living standards.”

Minh Dai Commune currently maintains over 2,263 hectares of tea, of which approximately 2,223 hectares are actively producing.

From tea hills and forests to traditional delicacies, Minh Dai is step-by-step converting indigenous advantages into branded commercial commodities. As residents transform their production mindset, cooperatives and cooperative groups are reinforced, and local government accompanies them in product standardization, OCOP serves as a bridge bringing local agricultural produce to wider markets. This forms the foundation for Minh Dai’s rural economy to create further development space, elevate product value, increase local incomes, and establish brands bearing the distinct imprint of the land.

Minh Thuat