At present, the commune has three products certified as four-star OCOP and two others rated three-star, namely Thu Dan Oolong Tea, Trong Nguyen Tea, Minh Tri Arabica Coffee, Phong Lai Honey, and Pha Din Top Tourist Site. These products have initially established their brands in the market and gained recognition among consumers.

Among the locality’s key specialties, Thu Dan tea has been identified as a flagship product, with resources gathered to elevate its value to the four-star level. At the raw material area of Thu Dan Tea Co., Ltd. in Kien Xuong hamlet, more than 10 hectares of tea cultivated under organic practices are now entering the harvest season. The company has proactively implemented a rigorous organic farming process to meet stringent export standards.

According to Pham Van Doanh, Director of Thu Dan Tea Co., Ltd., the company has placed strong emphasis on improving product quality and packaging. Its four-star OCOP tea product has gained increasing interest and support from consumers. On average, it supplies around 300 tonnes of Oolong tea annually to both domestic and international markets. To meet large-scale orders and further professionalise its production process, the company has invested over 10 billion VND (379,867 USD) in a modern production line with a capacity of 35 tonnes per day. At the same time, it is striving to make Thu Dan tea meet five-star status in the near future.

Alongside tea cultivation, Binh Thuan commune has made a breakthrough by harmoniously linking agriculture with eco-tourism. The success of Pha Din Top Tourist Site has affirmed the soundness of this development direction. Covering nearly 30 hectares since 2018, the site boasts a diverse forest ecosystem and vibrant flower gardens featuring lavender, hydrangeas, and rhododendrons, creating a distinctive cultural experience space.

In 2020, Pha Din Top was officially recognised as a four-star provincial OCOP product, becoming an attractive stop on journeys to explore the Northwestern region. According to Quang Thi Ha, Deputy Director of Pha Din Tourism Cooperative, the unit continues to upgrade its landscape, develop accommodation and local culinary services, and establish agricultural product display areas to enhance the overall quality of visitor experiences.

Since the beginning of the year, tourism sites and attractions in Binh Thuan commune have welcomed more than 10,000 visitors, generating an estimated revenue of over 150 million VND. These results reflect a significant shift in development thinking, as OCOP products are increasingly becoming attractive tourism resources.

Alongside the efforts of local stakeholders, the commune is actively encouraging enterprises and cooperatives to strengthen production linkages and develop safe agricultural value chains, thereby creating highly competitive products in the market. The locality is also working closely with provincial departments and agencies to support residents in promoting trade and connecting supply with demand through fairs and exhibitions. Notably, efforts to bring agricultural products onto e-commerce platforms have helped expand market access and widely promote Binh Thuan’s distinctive products to consumers.

Under its roadmap to 2030, the commune aims to develop a total of seven OCOP products, including one five-star, with a focus on diversifying the list with medicinal herbs and community-based tourism.

To realise this goal, the locality is prioritising the standardisation of management capacity among participating entities and strengthening value chain linkages. According to Vu Tien De, Vice Chairman of the communal People’s Committee, the commune is focusing on enhancing governance capacity for stakeholders, from production management skills to the application of information technology, while promoting safe value chain linkages to improve competitiveness.

The success of the Thu Dan Tea and the Pha Din Top Tourist Site has affirmed Binh Thuan commune’s sound approach in translating the OCOP programme into tangible economic value. Building on its existing OCOP products, the locality remains committed to standardising quality and adopting flexible trade promotion strategies to enhance the brand value of its agricultural products, thereby creating a strong “lever” for achieving advanced new rural development goals and ensuring sustainable growth./.