Developing many sectors and industries

Hoang Van Agricultural Cooperative in Van Xuyen village, Hoang Van commune, Hiep Hoa district has 9 official members and 38 joint venture members, specializing in agricultural production.

Than Truong Cooperative in Yen The district maintains of Ven village tea production in line with developing community-based tourism.

The cooperative produces and purchases over 10 tonnes of round grain glutinous rice and about 20 tonnes of black olive (Canarium nigrum Engl) each year to make local signature specialties like banh chung Van, salted black olive and nham tram den (black olive salad).

The products meet food hygiene and safety standards with delicious flavour, which are must-have dishes on Tet occasion, of which banh chung Van was rated a 3-star OCOP product.

In order to widely introduce the regional specialties, increase the consumption and members’ income, the cooperative opened a restaurant managed by Ta Thi Quy, the cooperative Director.

The restaurant is often crowded on festival and holiday occasions when it also receives orders from the province and other localities. Getting more jobs, the average income of the cooperative members increases from 1.5 to 2 million VND per month.

Cuong Thi Agriculture and Food Processing Cooperative in Dai Hoa commune, Tan Yen district has also developed new industries. The main business line of the cooperative is confectionery production (such as peanut candy, sesame candy and che lam cake).

Since its early days of operation, the cooperative has reinforced resources and invested in semi-automatic machines to reduce labour force and production time while increasing profits. The cooperative creates regular jobs for 7 workers, even 25 or 30 workers in peak seasons.

This cooperative annually supplies about 500 tonnes of confectionery of different types to the market, earning a revenue from 20 to 25 billion VND (787,525 to 984,407 USD) with a profit of over 1 billion USD (39,376 USD).

Its product “Do Hung traditional che lam cake” was rated 3-star OCOP, helping to affirm its trademark and get more opportunity to approach high-end markets.

New policy “energizes” cooperatives

There are more than 1,100 cooperatives in the entire province with the total charter capital of nearly 3 trillion VND (118.13 million USD) attracting over 43,000 members.

In recent years, most of the cooperatives have paid attention to expanding industries and production sectors to enhance their performance, meet the members’ demand and promote the local advantages.

Nui Han Community-based Tourism Cooperative in Xuong Lam commune, Lang Giang district is a good example. This cooperative has come into operation for over 1 year. It has collected 1 hectare of land to grow flowers, Shan Tuyet tea and jabuticaba tree to create a beautiful landscape to attract tourists.

Besides, the cooperative links with other tourist sites to create meaningful and memorial experience tours. In addition, it also pays attention to developing special regional food as gifts for visitors, especially the “sun-dried beef” which has been certified 3-star OCOP product.

According to Nguyen Duc Hien, Chairman of the provincial Cooperative Alliance, cooperatives have benefited from many supporting policies for their production and business activities including those related to land, loans, human resource development and trade promotion.

The Law on Cooperatives 2023 took effect from 1 July 2024 with new provisions and policies to better support collective economic organizations, especially in multiplying industries and sectors.

Besides, the Law on Cooperatives 2023 provides more supporting policies for collective economic organizations in application of science and technology, salary, bonus and allowance support to attract high-quality human resources and training to enhance members’ capacity.

Nguyen Duc Hien stressed multiplying industries and sectors is an inevitable trend to help cooperatives grow effectively and sustainably.