At a trade show of regional agricultural products held in Da Nang in central Vietnam, 180 booths and more than 400 specialty items lined up over five days, and sales to visitors reached about VND 5 billion (about 30 million yen at about 60 yen per 10,000 dong). It looks like a one-off direct-sale event, but for Japanese food buyers and souvenir procurement staff it becomes an entry point to procurement where products scattered across regions can be seen at a glance. A place where fresh produce, dried goods, processed foods, and even handicrafts, each with a character differing by production area, gather in one spot is not to be overlooked in digging up Vietnam's regional brands as commodities.<\/p>\n
The run was five days, July 9 to 13. The host was the Da Nang City Farmers' Association, and exhibitors came from, in addition to Da Nang City, the provinces of Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Thua Thien Hue, and Quang Ngai. A broad lineup gathered, geographically and by item, from the coffee and pepper production areas of the Central Highlands to the coastal seafood and processed goods. On the floor, agricultural products, OCOP-certified goods, small handicrafts, and regional specialties were lined up mixed together, with several thousand residents and tourists reportedly visiting.<\/p>\n
Chairwoman Le Thi Minh Tam positions this trade show as \"a meeting place where companies, cooperatives, orchard owners, and producers exchange experience and seek opportunities for long-term cooperation.\" What sets it apart from an ordinary trade fair is that the focus is placed not on selling out but on connecting makers and buyers and creating the buds of standing trade relationships.<\/p>\n
The core of the more than 400 items lined up is OCOP (One Commune One Product) certified goods. OCOP is a regional-product rating system Vietnam runs nationwide, examining quality, packaging, traceability, and the like to grant 1 to 5 stars. You could rephrase it as a mechanism in which the administration sorts, by a certain standard, the products of the countless small producers scattered across regions.<\/p>\n
This \"number of stars\" becomes a marker usable as is in Japanese procurement practice. Ordering samples from an unknown production area and checking quality one by one takes effort and carries risk, but 4- and 5-star products have their paperwork and labeling in order, with a foundation laid for placing them on export or retail shelves. In fact, within Vietnam too, major retailers are strengthening the move to choose regional OCOP goods by the number of stars and place them on the shelves<\/a> and 5-star certification has begun to function as a procurement entry point as is<\/a>. The Da Nang trade show was also a place to compare these \"starred commodities\" across production areas.<\/p>\n Organizing the published figures brings the trade show's character into view.<\/p>\nThe trade show's strength in figures<\/h2>\n