One Village One Product (OVOP), a concept which encourages local communities to concentrate on local strengths, be they in materials, crops, culture or personnel skills to create distinctive products which can then be effectively marketed locally or internationally, was established in Japan’s Oita Prefecture in the 1970s. Oita prefecture has had great success with this concept such that this concept has been introduced in developing countries like Malawi.

Malawi began a pilot OVOP project in 2003 and two years later JICA implemented a program to support the establishment of a national OVOP government secretariat. This secretariat is now operational. The items produced under OVOP include:

Palm Oil Soaps: These are produced in called Kaporo in the northern part of Malawi.

Natural Value Added Products For Boosting Nutrition Status: Mitundu Agro Business Group is allocated near Mitundu Trading centre in Lilongwe district.They are producing tomato jam, groundnut oil, Soya milk, and cassava bread and cassava chips.

Bvumbwe Milk: Pasteurized whole milk  produced by Bvumbwe Dairy Farmers Cooperative society.

Baobab Jam: Michirubased Khumbo Oil Refinery produces jam from baobab, an enormous and uniquely shaped tree, which is one of the symbols of African nature.

Baobab Oil: This also produced from baobab by Michiru based Khumbo Oil Refinery.

Moringa Oil: This is also produced by Khumbo Oil Refinery.

Rice: Produced at a Rice Mill run by the Bwanje Rice Cooperative.

Cassava starch: This is produced the Rumphi Cassava Association and the Nankhaka Cassava Group in Lilongwe

Processed vegetables and fruits from Bvumbwe.

Mulanje honey: Processed and packaged in Mulanje

Malawi government had also approved 5 years plan for OVOP development, from 2014-2019.