In the group of OCOP products imbued with local identity, Mường Lay’s “khẩu xén” (cassava cracker) stands out thanks to its traditional flavor and characteristic handmade method. Not a strange dish, “khẩu xén” appears in most festivals, weddings, and village worship ceremonies... Taking advantage of available cultural values and market demand, many households and production facilities in Mường Lay have invested in drying lines, packaging machines, and standardized food safety processes to expand product output.

Sticking with the profession of making “khẩu xén,” Lò Chúc Chi, Director of Hoa Ban Trắng Cooperative (Mường Lay ward), started with just a few batches of handmade cakes. From there, she step-by-step built a brand and established a cooperative, gathering women households in the ward to participate in production. Keeping traditional ingredients and characteristic methods, the Cooperative gradually improved processing stages, perfecting the product, helping “khẩu xén” have crispness, fragrance, and uniformity. Since being certified as a 3-star OCOP product, the output has been more stable, and consumption volume has increased significantly. Previously, consumption output was about 1 - 2 tons/year, now averaging 35 tons/year. The cooperative also creates additional seasonal jobs for dozens of local workers.

Lò Chúc Chi shared: “Khẩu xén is inherently a traditional cake of the Thai people; we only try to keep that flavor intact while making the quality more stable. When participating in OCOP, the cooperative has more orientation on packaging and production standards, so the product is easier to access the market. During peak holiday seasons, orders increase sharply, giving women in the ward significant additional income...”

Besides “khẩu xén,” “khẩu chí chọp” is also a characteristic OCOP product in Mường Lay ward. Standardizing processes, investing in packaging, and building brands help traditional products not be lost, creating economic value for practitioners. Currently, Mường Lay ward continues to orient people to develop OCOP based on identity, exploiting cultural advantages, and expanding the market, thereby increasing competitiveness for local products.

With a large natural area, mostly agricultural production land, in recent years Tuần Giáo commune has promoted propaganda, mobilizing people to transform crop structure and innovate farming methods. Short-term crops on sloping land with low efficiency are replaced by key crops with high economic value such as macadamia, coffee, and some fruit trees. To date, the whole commune has nearly 2,400ha of macadamia, over 609ha of coffee, and over 67ha of various fruit trees.

Phạm Hữu Chiến, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Tuần Giáo commune, said: Macadamia and coffee are identified as the two key crops of the locality. Therefore, the commune encourages people to participate in linkage models, focusing on deep processing and brand building to increase value, creating a sustainable development direction for products. Currently, the commune has 16 OCOP products, including 2 4-star products and 14 3-star products; most are processed from macadamia and coffee. In the coming period, Tuần Giáo commune aims to expand the area of these two crops to about 4,000ha, creating conditions to develop more characteristic local products.

Along with developing raw material areas and expanding OCOP products from available advantages, many localities in the province are proactively deploying support activities to improve quality and competitiveness for products, fostering knowledge on management and use of collective marks for cooperative groups, cooperatives, and production households. This is an important step helping facilities clearly understand processes and standards in brand management, avoiding misuse or not ensuring the rights of mark owners.

In some communes, households and production facility owners are trained on how to build identification systems, labeling, quality control, and protection registration processes. Equipping this knowledge helps OCOP subjects understand and comply with regulations, raising awareness of preserving collective brands and proactively perfecting products before bringing them to market. Trần Hồng Quân, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Na Sang commune, said: At the end of last November, the commune coordinated with Investip Industrial Property Joint Stock Company to organize in-depth training and fostering on intellectual property knowledge, collective marks, and documents managing and using the collective mark “Na Sang Pineapple Fruit.” This is an important step helping people increase the value of agricultural products, facilitating promotion, consumption, and participation in the OCOP program in the coming time.

Not only coordinating training and fostering on brands, but communes also promote trade promotion activities, bringing products to attend trade promotion fairs for agricultural products and OCOP products, connecting with large consumption enterprises. Some localities are building a set of criteria for evaluating characteristic products suitable for each raw material region, encouraging facilities to invest in machinery and innovate processing technology to improve quality and prolong preservation time.

With 138 OCOP products (5 products achieving 4 stars, 133 products achieving 3 stars), based on unique potentials, the province continues to encourage localities and people to develop rural economic models; promoting indigenous cultural values, ecological landscapes, and characteristic agricultural products to associate with community tourism and agricultural tourism; forming concentrated production zones associated with deep processing to increase product value. Thereby creating motivation to promote OCOP product development, build brands, expand markets, create jobs, and raise income for people.