The Opening Ceremony of OCOP Vietnam Fruit and Product Festival in 2022

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the opening ceremony of the OCOP Vietnam Fruit and Product Festival 2022 - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

The program aims to honor fruit growers and promote OCOP Vietnam's product brand, part of the series of events of the 2022 Prime Minister's Conference with Vietnamese farmers held in Son La.

This festival is a gathering place for managers, scientists, businesses and farmers to meet, to introduce, to spread, to learn, to link, to promote, to expand the tourism development market. and agricultural products, especially fruits and products that meet OCOP standards. The scale of more than 400 direct booths, 65 online booths on the e-commerce floor of 63 provinces and cities, businesses, cooperatives and farmers demonstrated the success of the Festival.

The OCOP Vietnam Fruit and Product Festival 2022 is an important event, creating conditions for Son La province and other provinces and cities across the country to meet, exchange and promote potentials and opportunities for promotion. promote trade, connect the market for fruit and OCOP products at home and abroad; contribute to the recovery and socio-economic development after the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year's OCOP Vietnam Fruit and Product Festival takes place from May 28 to May 31.

Along with that is a series of continuous and complementary events in an overall program associated with rich, diverse, attractive and meaningful cultural activities and festivals such as: Workshop "Building Associations" Vietnamese farmers and the Vietnamese peasant class in the period of accelerating industrialization, modernization and international integration to 2030, with a vision to 2045”; agricultural road exhibition; fruit and product exhibition OCOP Vietnam; exhibition "Vietnam's agricultural development achievements"; exhibition "Socio-economic development achievements of Son La province"; display, exhibition and trade promotion of Vietnamese goods in the Northwest; online exhibition of fruits and OCOP products on e-commerce platform Postmart. Competitions such as: "Beautiful photos of fruits", "Creating art from fruits", "Making delicious dishes from fruits" and cultural exchange activities, traditional cuisine of the Western region North.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh highly appreciated the initiative of Son La province in coordination with the Central Vietnam Farmers' Association, ministries, branches and businesses that have chosen this place to hold the ceremony. festival.

The Prime Minister stated that, after more than 35 years of implementing the renovation policy, especially after 15 years of implementing the Resolution of the 7th Plenum of the 7th Plenum of the Party Central Committee on agriculture, farmers, rural areas, there have been changes in the rural areas. positive change, step by step industrialization and modernization; The material and spiritual life of the farmers is improved. The COVID-19 epidemic that has taken place over the past 2 years has affected all socio-economic aspects around the globe. In that context, the agricultural sector has shown its role as the backbone of our economy and food security.

Vietnam has become one of the leading exporters of agro-forestry-fishery products in the world with a value of more than 48 billion USD in 2021, of which vegetables and fruits contribute nearly 3.6 billion USD. Reality in many localities shows the effectiveness of converting inefficient agricultural land to fruit trees, in which Son La is a bright spot in fruit tree development.

The One Commune One Product (OCOP) program has been officially implemented nationwide since 2018 with a focus on developing agricultural, non-agricultural products and services with advantages in each locality along the value chain. highly competitive in domestic and international markets. Up to now, the whole country has nearly 7,500 OCOP products with 3 stars or more, Son La alone has 83 products. OCOP products have quickly affirmed their position, received a very positive response from the market, helping farmers to expand production scale, increase product value, thereby improving spiritual and material life.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited some booths during the OCOP Vietnam Fruit and Product Festival 2022 - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

The Prime Minister emphasized that the above results were achieved thanks to the efforts and efforts of all levels of Party committees and authorities from the central to local levels; the dynamism, creativity, overcoming difficulties and challenges, dare to think, dare to do, sharp thinking of farmers.

However, the agricultural sector in general and the fruit industry in particular still have difficulties and challenges. There are many varieties of plants, inputs are still dependent on imports; raw material areas have not been concentrated; production scale is small and fragmented; post-harvest processing and preservation technology has not been developed; the consumption market is unstable and not diversified; product quality requirements are increasing with strict international standards; metal emissions pollute the environment...

According to the Prime Minister, in order to develop agriculture effectively and add value, the agricultural sector in general and Son La in particular should focus on developing the agricultural ecosystem, the fruit industry ecosystem; building green economy, circular economy in agriculture, contributing to environmental protection, reducing greenhouse gas emissions; encourage start-ups, innovation and digital transformation in agriculture, diversify export markets.

The Prime Minister stated that, in order for agricultural products, fruits and OCOP products to develop sustainably, we need to focus on solving 5 basic problems: building a brand; planning and development of raw materials; developing organic agriculture, applying high technology, processing industry, post-harvest preservation technology; capital support, diversification of investment resources through socialization, public-private cooperation; develop and expand markets, promote deep participation in domestic and international supply chains.

Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of The Socialist Republic of Vietnam