Building collective brand for “A Luoi yellow beef”

A Luoi is a mountainous district in the central province of Thua Thien - Hue. This is home to the Kinh, Pa Ko, Ta Oi, Co Tu ethnic groups... who live mainly on agricultural production. In recent years, developing livestock, especially cow farming, has helped local people have a stable source of income.

Recently, A Luoi specialty stores have been formed, contributing to promoting agricultural products of local farmers. Beef is one of the local specialties favored by consumers with diverse products such as dried beef, sun-dried beef...

However, for a long time, A Luoi beef products were not certified by any specialized agency, causing difficulties in consumer identification.

Therefore, with the collective trademark "A Luoi beef" certification granted by the Intellectual Property Office, A Luoi district will have an opportunity to introduce and promote "A Luoi beef", promoting livestock farming activities under its planning, bringing high efficiency to livestock households, protecting consumer interests.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hai, Vice Chairman of A Luoi District People's Committee, said that this is an opportunity to gather small livestock households into a unified block, with common interests, to improve productivity, product quality, and expand the market, positively contributing to the socio-economic development of A Luoi district.

Focus on organic cow farming

A Luoi district has implemented a cattle herd development project for the period of 2021-2025, with the goal of gradually improving the quality of livestock, striving to develop an additional 300 cows each year.

To make A Luoi beef products become typical products on the market, contributing to improving people's lives, from July 2022, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Quality Management of Thua Thien Hue province chose the families of Ms. Ho Thi Sa and Mr. Ho Van Toi in Loah - Ta Vai village (Dong Son commune, A Luoi district) to support certification of an organic cow farming model with 50 cows each.

Surveys of historical status, analysis of water samples, grasslands, potential dangers from surrounding areas show that the 10 hectares of planted grass for cows of Ms. Ho Thi Sa's household do not have any historical pollution risks and are currently eligible for organic cattle farming in accordance with organic farming standards.

These households have been trained and raised awareness about organic beef farming, guided to overcome inadequacies in facilities, delineating buffer zones to comply with organic agriculture standards, building and completing a document system for managing organic beef farming in accordance with TCVN 11041-2:2017 standards on organic agriculture.

They are also instructed how to select production areas, convert arable land into raw material growing for cattle feed, increase biodiversity, create a sustainable ecosystem to have safe quality products; guided methods of raising organic beef cattle, contributing to creating safe livestock products, improving product value and reputation with consumers; provided instructions for practical application of the built document system into actual production to ensure that the households clearly understands how to monitor, make records and check internal quality annually...

Thanks to this process, the households have clearly understood the methods of monitoring and organizing internal management. Members have complied with organic agriculture requirements and taken corrective actions in case of detecting food insecurity. They also learned production diary recording skills; how to send samples of soil, water, food, and wastewater to testing centers to analyze microbiological and physicochemical criteria of soil and grass sources for cow feed to meet regulations. The system of cages for confinement during unforeseen weather and fattening has a total area of 500 m2 for each family.

Certification of the organic cow farming model is important in creating economic value for farmers and enhancing the collective brand of A Luoi yellow cattle. Besides, this is also a pilot model to promote, support and develop organic cattle production for small and medium-sized households in Thua Thien Hue province.