"Behind every One Commune One Product (OCOP)-starred product lies a quietly operating support system: technical staff, experts, trade fairs, and e-commerce platforms. OCOP cannot go far without forward-looking policy support," affirmed Nguyen Huy Nhuan, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Hoa Binh province.
A safe agricultural products store in Tan Lac district.
From 2018 to 2020, the initial phase of the OCOP programme, Hoa Binh province mobilised over 47.5 billion VND to support its implementation. According to Nhuan, this funding came mainly from the National Target Programme for New-Style Rural Development, the local budget, and integration with other socio-economic development projects. The province prioritised products with strong market potential, stable supply chains, and distinctive cultural identity.
To ensure sustainability, major provincial programmes were designed to support OCOP in parallel. Notably, Resolution No. 01-DA/TU by the provincial Party Committee's Standing Board (2021) supports farmer members in agricultural production and product consumption. Other relevant projects include Resolution No. 03-DA/TU on agricultural development aligned with new-styled rural construction and the 2021–2025 tourism development plan. Thanks to this integration, OCOP stakeholders benefit not only from specialised policies but also from additional resources such as infrastructure, training, trade promotion, interest rate subsidies, and land access.
District-level administrations are also encouraged to allocate their own budgets for the OCOP programme. Districts such as Luong Son, Tan Lac and Kim Boi took the initiative to use funds from agricultural and cooperative economic development to support packaging upgrades, label printing, facility construction, and cold storage for cooperatives with OCOP products. In some areas, district leaders even worked directly with banks to resolve credit challenges for producers.
With timely and targeted financial support, many OCOP products in Hoa Binh have made notable progress. Their raw material zones have been stabilised, processing lines upgraded, and quality certifications such as VietGAP and HACCP achieved.
Aiming to shift local specialties from "homemade thinking" to a market-oriented mindset, Hoa Binh has launched diverse trade promotion campaigns, from traditional fairs to e-commerce platforms, from product showcases to export gateways.
Early in the OCOP rollout, the Department of Agriculture and Environment organised business-matching delegations and product promotion events across Northwestern provinces. Hoa Binh also hosted regional OCOP fairs, giving local specialties a platform to shine. Highland markets and annual agricultural fairs in Hoa Binh city attracted thousands of visitors, resulted in consumption contracts, and expanded retail distribution through supermarkets and clean food chains.
When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, the province swiftly pivoted to digital trade promotion. The provincial Centre for Industrial Promotion and Development Consultancy helped bring OCOP products to platforms such as Postmart, Voso, Shopee, and Sendo. "By the end of 2024, about 3,000 agricultural and OCOP products from Hoa Binh were introduced online, contributing to the sale of over 1,300 tonnes of produce. Some have even secured export orders to the US, Japan, and the EU, unprecedented prior to the OCOP programme, said Duong Quoc Thang, Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade.
The provincial New-style Rural Development Coordination Office played a key role in connecting with e-commerce firms, while technical staff assisted individual households in creating online stores, photographing products, writing descriptions, and adding QR codes.
Currently, there are around 15 safe agricultural product stores across the province, showcasing OCOP and local specialty products. Bui Quoc Hoan, Vice Chairman of the Luong Son district People's Committee, said that in addition to distribution channels, the district prioritises OCOP brand communication. Stakeholders receive support to design professional logos and packaging, complete traceability profiles, and print QR codes and anti-counterfeit labels. All starred products must adhere to the national OCOP brand identity system while maintaining a distinctive regional imprint. Some products are even supported with promotional costs on provincial news outlets, websites, and the Hoa Binh agricultural brand fanpage.
Thanks to strong policy backing, the OCOP brand in Hoa Binh is gaining recognition. More than just high-quality goods, OCOP products have become "cultural ambassadors" of the Muong, Thai and Dao ethnic minority communities, preserved and elevated by the very hands of local people.
From just 16 certified products in its inaugural year to 158 by early 2025, the One Commune One Product (OCOP) programme in Hoa Binh province has followed a steady and strategic path. But beyond the numbers, it has reawakened local heritage, turning oranges, bamboo shoots, brocade, and herbal remedies into branded, market-ready goods - and, more profoundly, transformed how local communities value and present their own cultural identity.
The economic landscape of Hoa Binh province continued its impressive upward trajectory through the first four months of 2025, according to a recent report from the provincial Department of Finance. The local authority has directed departments and sectors to keep close tabs on growth scenarios for each quarters and remove bottlenecks, striving to complete the set growth targets.
As part of efforts to restructure and accelerate the development of its industrial and handicraft sectors, Hoa Binh province is focusing on the development of industrial parks (IPs) and industrial clusters (ICs) with synchronous infrastructure to attract strong investment.
In recent times, Hoa Binh province has shown its determination and high sense of responsibility in seriously implementing the directives of the Party Central Committee and its Politburo and Secretariat regarding the streamlining of the political system’s organisational apparatus and the development of a two-level local administration system. The aim is to build a commune-level administration that is close to the people, attentive to their needs, and capable of quickly responding to the demands of both businesses and citizens, while also opening up new development spaces.
Over the past three years, the northern mountainous province of Hoa Binh has begun redefining its position on Vietnam’s service landscape with a series of distintive commercial models, from highland night markets, pedestrian-friendly streets, to logistics centres tied to local agricultural products.
Hoa Binh city has marked a significant step in sustainable forest management as nearly 1,450 hectares of its plantation forests have been granted Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, an international standard required to access major wood markets such as the EU, the US, and Japan.
