Fair brings OCOP products into the Japanese supermarket system

The Hanoi Agriculture Fair 2022 opens at AEON MALL Ha Dong, in Hanoi, on August 18, attracted the participation of 70 organisations, individuals and OCOP subjects from 30 provinces and cities.

Delegates cut the ribbon opening the fair
Delegates cut the ribbon opening the fair

Taking place from August 18-21, the fair is an activity to continue implementing the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the People's Committee of Hanoi and AEON Corporation of Japan, towards the goal of achieving 1 billion USD in export turnover of Vietnamese goods through AEON's system by 2025.

With a scale of 66 booths, the fair attracted the participation of 70 organisations, individuals and OCOP subjects from 30 provinces and cities such as Cao Bang, Nghe An, Thai Nguyen, Ninh Binh, and Laos. Cai, Lang Son, Bac Kan, Hoa Binh, Bac Giang, Hung Yen, Ha Giang, Thanh Hoa, Binh Dinh, Quang Nam, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Duong, Quang Ngai, Dak Lak, Tuyen Quang, Son La, and Quang Tri.

Delegates visit the booth at the Fair.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy Director in charge of Information - Communications and Tourism Promotion of the Hanoi Promotion Agency (HPA) Bui Duy Quang said that this event is an important highlight held annually in AEON MALL Long Bien and AEON MALL Ha Dong.

Through many years of organization, the Fair has received the active participation of the business community and over 40 provinces and cities with thousands of agricultural products and regional specialities, meeting quality standards, and high-tech application products. The OCOP products are displayed, introduced and provided to the capital's consumers.

People enjoy visiting and learning about agricultural products at the fair.

At the opening ceremony, Nakagawa Tetsuyuki, General Director of AEONMALL Vietnam Co. Ltd., affirmed that AEON Corporation always strives to realise sustainable development goals, while cooperating with Hanoi city to organise the agricultural trade promotion fair.

General Director of AEON MALL Vietnam emphasised that the Corporation will continue to accompany and engage with the local community, supporting sustainable production activities to create useful values for the community and become a business loved by the local community.

Nakagawa Tetsuyuki believes that the fair will help Vietnamese consumers, and domestic and foreign retailers, to have more opportunities to contact, understand and feel secure about high-quality Vietnamese agricultural products.

In the afternoon of the same day, the HPA also cooperated with the Hanoi City Cooperative Alliance to successfully organise the Conference on Trade Promotion and Product Consumption for Co-operatives, with the theme "Safe agricultural products, clear origin".

Hanoi Promotion Agency (HPA) is assigned by Hanoi municipal People's Committee, to implement cooperation programmes with the Japanese AEON Group. Since 2016, HPA has actively coordinated with AEON Group to carry out many agricultural trade promotion activities with Vietnamese enterprises. Under the cooperation, the two sides have supported Vietnamese enterprises, to export Vietnamese agricultural products and food to the Japanese market through AEON's retail systems. HPA is a bridge to support and connect suppliers with the network of AEON Group, helping to provide technical training, raise awareness and competitiveness for businesses and improve their product quality.

The Hanoi trade fair, displaying agricultural products and goods under the 'One Commune, One Product' (OCOP) programme, is among the highlight events held annually at AEON Mall Long Bien and AEON Mall Ha Dong. The fair has received the enthusiastic participation of the business community and over 40 provinces and cities, with thousands of high-quality agricultural products and regional specialities, high-tech products and OCOP products, having been introduced to Hanoi’s consumers. By participating in the fair, many businesses have gotten access to and received high appreciation from AEON Group's purchasing units, becoming suppliers of OCOP products and products to the Group, while gaining positive feedback from Hanoi’s consumers.

One Commune One Product (OCOP) is the first rural economic development programme based on internal strengths to enhance value, implemented in Vietnam since 2018 under Government Decision 490/QĐ-TTg, issued on May 7, 2018.

The programme is intended to carry out the national target programme to build new rural areas and is designed to sustainably implement criteria on production and income improvement for the people, especially in rural areas. The focus of the programme is developing agricultural, non-agricultural and service products with advantages in each locality in accordance with value chains implemented by private enterprises and cooperatives.

During the three years from 2018 to 2020, Vietnam saw 2,400 OCOP products with 100% of stakeholders undergoing training to enhance their capacity to implement the programme. As of the end of 2020, all 63 provinces and cities have formulated and approved OCOP projects. After that, localities also helped the stakeholders to formulate production plans and assess their products in a six-step process. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also introduced a handbook and a set of criteria to assess OCOP products, organised training courses, and supported the building of a consultative network in 63 provinces and cities.

As of July 2022, there were 8,340 OCOP products which having been given three-star ratings or higher nationwide, with 4,274 stakeholders. Among these products, 20 are rated five stars and were selected by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to propose to the Prime Minister for approval as national gifts.