Ha Giang girl "falls in love" with Thai tea trees

Although born and raised in Ha Giang province - the northernmost land of the country, Ms. Tran Thi Hue (born in 1990) has a "fate" with Thai Nguyen tea trees, because the land and people here have helped her gain experiences and enthusiasm to love and be attached to tea trees more.

After graduating from Thai Nguyen University of Education, in 2013, Ms. Hue was accepted to work at Nghia Thuan Ethnic Boarding High School (Quan Ba District, Ha Giang Province). In 2014, she married Mr. Trinh Van Ngoc (born in 1987), from Cau Da hamlet, Hoang Nong commune, Dai Tu district. After that, she returned to her husband's hometown to live and work.

Realizing that Dai Tu land has a large tea area and people have a lot of experience in tea production and processing, Ms. Hue chose to develop the economy from this crop.

The first time she came into contact with tea plants, Ms. Hue was surprised and confused because she did not know how to pick them properly and how to care for them to grow well. Therefore, one time she spread fertilizer directly on the top of the plants, causing 8 sao of tea to lose all the leaves, and had to cut down the entire top part so that the tea could grow a new crop.

Next, more than 3,000 square meters of newly planted tea of her family also died from "fertile residue", and had to be replanted. Or during the tea drying process, due to carelessness, she was crushed by the machine's hand, causing her face to turn purple... All these experiences helped Ms. Hue have her first "lessons", from which she drew experience to produce and process tea successfully as it is now.

After a period of hard work and learning, Ms. Hue gradually adapted to the life and tea-making methods of the people of Hoang Nong commune. To gain more knowledge, she researched books, newspapers, and the Internet, and registered to attend training courses on planting and caring for tea according to VietGAP and organic processes, etc. to take care of and produce delicious, high-quality batches of tea herself.

With the desire to create quality tea products that are safe for consumers, in 2016, Ms. Hue researched and tested the use of organic fertilizers and herbal pesticides on her family's tea plantation. The first batches of tea cultivated using this method brought positive results: The tea plants have good resistance to pests and diseases, when drunk, they have a mild aroma, and the selling price is twice as high as the traditional method...

In 2019, for the first time participating in the “Golden Hands of Tea Processing” Contest at the Tea Festival organized by Dai Tu District, Ms. Hue and the members of the Cau Da Hamlet Traditional Tea Village Contest won First Prize. This is a joy, encouragement and motivation for her to love and be more attached to the Thai tea tree.

In April 2022, with the support of the local government, Ms. Hue boldly established Cau Da Tea Cooperative with 7 members, a scale of 5 hectares of tea produced according to VietGAP standards, gradually shifting to organic. With the support of the State, the Cooperative has proactively applied science and technology, equipped with modern machinery systems, serving the production and processing of tea. Currently, Cau Da Tea Cooperative has 5 gas-fired tea roasting irons, 50 tea rolling machines, 3 vacuum machines, 3 factories with an area of nearly 1,000m2... with a total investment of over 3 billion VND.

Up to now, some products of the cooperative have been welcomed by the market inside and outside the province such as: An Ngoc hook tea (average price 250 thousand VND/kg); Thanh Huong shrimp tea (average price 500 thousand VND/kg); Kim Dung tea (price from 2.2-5 million VND/kg)...

As the Director of Cau Da Tea Cooperative, Ms. Tran Thi Hue always strives to build and affirm the brand with quality products. As market demand increases, customers tend to look for unique and distinctive products, Ms. Hue has researched and learned how to make lotus tea and jasmine tea.

Because the processing method is quite complicated, requiring the tea maker to have experience (from choosing tea, choosing lotus, jasmine flowers... to the time of tea infusion), the selling price of these two types of tea is quite high, ranging from 500 thousand VND to 1.5 million VND/kg for jasmine tea and from 2.5-5 million VND/kg for lotus tea. On average, each month, Cau Da Tea Cooperative produces and sells 3-5 quintals of jasmine and lotus tea to the market. The Cooperative has registered the product of young tea buds to participate in the typical rural industrial products.

In order for the cooperative's tea products to reach further, in the coming time, the unit will actively promote and introduce products, combine experiential tourism models; continue to invest in modern machinery in production and processing, to improve productivity, reduce labor; build tea products that meet OCOP standards of 3 stars or higher, recognized by competent authorities to create a brand for the cooperative...