Vinh Long women raise the level of OCOP products

With their creativity and skillful hands, many women in Vinh Long province have elevated their hometown specialties into OCOP products, both enriching themselves and creating jobs for many rural workers.

Tan Phu Agricultural Cooperative develops 4-star OCOP products from durian. (Photo: HOANG TRUNG)

OCOP products for women

Six years ago, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, residing in Thua Trung hamlet (Thoi Thuan commune, Vinh Long province) saw that her coastal village had many specialties from shrimp, clams, crabs... but they were mainly eaten fresh and difficult to preserve when transported far away, so she processed them into seafood sauces to sell to consumers.

Ms. Van recounted: “At first, I researched and made clam sauce like other seafood sauces for my family to eat and give to friends to enjoy. After a whole year, after many changes in the preparation and mixing of spices, the clam sauce was officially sold on the market.”

According to Ms. Van, clams are slimy, so they must be washed thoroughly many times to make a quality fish sauce without any fishy smell. At the same time, the clam meat must be salted to make it crispy and mixed with spices and salt for 20 days before it can be used. On average, 3kg of clams with shells will be separated to take out the intestines and processed to produce about 0.5kg of clam sauce. Therefore, this special product is quite expensive because the input materials are high and the processing is elaborate.

Ms. Van has 2 3-star OCOP products under the Thanh Van brand.

After that, Mrs. Van also made many other types of fish sauce such as: shrimp sauce, three-pointed crab sauce, squid sauce, crab sauce... according to customers' needs.

Ms. Van said: “Currently, my family makes three main types of fish sauce: clam fish sauce, shrimp fish sauce and three-sided crab fish sauce. Other types of fish sauce such as squid fish sauce and crab fish sauce have high raw material prices, so we only make them when customers order in advance. The special feature of fish sauces made from seafood is that we must choose fresh ingredients and process them carefully to produce fresh, delicious products to meet the increasing demand of consumers.”

When making the product, Ms. Van received local support in food safety and hygiene training, developed into a business household, registered a trademark to move towards building OCOP products.

Ms. Van said: “I am a farmer and only used to living in the countryside, so the procedures, paperwork, business registration, market development... are very difficult. Thanks to the support of all levels and sectors, I have built two brands, Thanh Van shrimp paste and Thanh Van clam paste, which meet 3-star OCOP standards. Currently, I have invested in a canning machine to help preserve the product better and improved the can design to look more beautiful than the old one. Thanks to that, more people know about my products than before.”

When she had the 3-star OCOP product, Ms. Van linked up with 4 local online businesses to introduce and sell the product on Tiktok, Facebook, Zalo channels...

At the same time, Ms. Van also plans to introduce the product at food and beverage stores in the Thua Duc beach area - where many tourists visit on weekends and holidays...

Tan Phu Agricultural Cooperative's members are mostly women.

Tan Phu Agricultural Cooperative (Tan Phu Commune, Vinh Long Province) is building and developing durian products that meet OCOP standards. What is special is that most of the members of this cooperative are women.

Director of Tan Phu Agricultural Cooperative Nguyen Thi Thinh informed: "Currently, there are 301 members with 250 hectares of durian production area. Up to now, the cooperative has built and been recognized 6 durian growing area codes and applied VietGAP production on an area of ​​200 hectares and 3 growing area codes are under construction. Of which, the durian product meets 4-star OCOP standards". Ms. Thinh personally also built a 3-star OCOP product named "Miss Thinh's durian".

Currently, cooperative members are instructed to fully record all farming activities, from care to harvest, to ensure transparency and traceability of products.

In addition, the cooperative has also accessed support projects to help farmers apply digital transformation to farming such as automatic irrigation systems, positioning applications and farming monitoring via phone.

In the near future, Tan Phu Agricultural Cooperative will build a 5-star OCOP durian brand to serve the domestic and export markets.

Creating conditions to support women's economic development

Recently, in Vinh Long province, the emulation movements of "women starting creative businesses" and "women confidently developing the economy" have spread widely, arousing the spirit of self-reliance and self-strengthening of women in the new era.

Along with that, the Union at all levels promotes training in digital skills, management skills, and online communication, helping women, especially rural women, participate in the digital economy, develop flexible jobs, and increase income.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thinh builds a 3-star OCOP product with the brand name "Ms. Thinh's durian".

Chairwoman of the Women's Union of Vinh Long province Nguyen Thi Kim Thoa informed that, up to now, the whole province has more than 2,100 startup ideas and projects, of which 240 projects have been supported to materialize, many models have won awards at the regional and central levels.

In the period 2017-2025, the Association has supported 8,400 women to start businesses, established 54 cooperatives and 458 cooperative groups managed by women, creating stable jobs for thousands of female workers. Thanks to that, many models have proactively applied digital technology, put products on e-commerce platforms, expanded consumer markets, promoted OCOP products and local specialties.

Women are supported by the Women's Union at all levels in economic development.

Secretary of Vinh Long Provincial Party Committee Tran Van Lau assessed that Vinh Long women on the one hand still take good care of their families and at the same time always try to study, practice moral qualities, improve their qualifications and professional capacity, demonstrate their talents and creativity to build agencies, units, organizations, and localities, contributing to the development of the whole society. Regardless of their position or position, women always cultivate moral qualities and strive to excellently complete assigned tasks.

With the spirit of solidarity, dynamism and creativity, the Unions at all levels have organized and implemented well the emulation movements and campaigns launched by the Party, the State and the Unions at higher levels. At the same time, they have performed the representative function, cared for and protected the legitimate rights and interests of women of all classes and constantly innovated their methods of operation in accordance with reality, focused and key activities, creating trust among women of all classes.

Women of Vinh Long province were commended in the emulation movement in 2025.

In particular, responding to the Dong Khoi program to start and develop businesses, Vinh Long women pioneered in starting and innovating with thousands of household economic models, nearly 1,650 collective economic models, nearly 100 cooperatives owned by women, mobilizing tens of billions of VND to support women in starting businesses.

The movement "Women help each other develop the economy" has become a solid foundation, helping thousands of households escape poverty, become well-off, enrich themselves and create jobs for many workers.

HOANG TRUNG

Source: https://nhandan.vn/phu-nu-vinh-long-nang-tam-san-pham-ocop-post916417.html