Enhancing the value of tea: Responsibility from many sides

As the land of “The First Famous Tea” of Vietnam, for many years, Thai Nguyen province has identified tea as a key crop, many local tea products have affirmed their brand and conquered the world market. In order to increase the value of products, develop the tea industry sustainably, authorities and localities have proposed many synchronous solutions from production organization, application of technological advances, conversion of variety structure associated with brand building, trade promotion... However, the value from tea is not commensurate with the potential and advantages of the province, requiring community responsibility from many sides.

In recent years, the provincial departments and agencies have increased the organization of fairs and festivals to connect supply and demand, helping businesses and tea cooperatives connect and consume products. In the photo: Members of Hao Dat Tea Cooperative perform the tea processing process for visitors to see directly.

In recent years, the province's functional departments and agencies have increased the organization of fairs and festivals connecting supply and demand, helping businesses and tea cooperatives connect and consume products. In the photo: Members of Hao Dat Tea Cooperative perform the tea processing process for visitors to see directly.

Production linkage according to VietGAP and organic standards

With favorable soil and climate conditions, along with the experience in planting and processing of the people, in recent years, Thai Nguyen tea has become increasingly popular in the domestic and international markets. Currently, the whole province has nearly 22.5 thousand hectares, the output of fresh tea buds reaches over 267.5 thousand tons, the value of tea products reaches 12.3 thousand billion VND/year.

The first and most important factor that determines the quality of tea products is the raw material (fresh tea buds). After many years of producing tea using traditional methods, since 2022, Mr. Pham Van Nguyen, in Chinh Phu 1 hamlet, Phu Xuyen commune (Dai Tu) has determined to convert the model to organic tea production. His family is one of 50 households associated with Ha Thai Tea Joint Stock Company in organic tea production.

Mr. Pham Van Nguyen excitedly said: My family has 3,500m2 of tea. Organic tea production has many health benefits for family members, the community and consumers. Every month, Ha Thai Tea Joint Stock Company sends people to take samples of soil, water and tea for testing and evaluation. Tea that meets the requirements is purchased by the Company at a relatively high price, an average of 35-40 thousand VND/kg of fresh tea buds, and the associated households do not worry about output. The hamlet currently has 26 hectares of tea, of which 6 hectares have been converted to organic production.

Hien Dai Tu has formed 11 chains linking tea production and consumption. Talking to us, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hai, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of La Bang Tea Cooperative, said: The Cooperative is linking tea production with more than 200 households in 6 hamlets in the commune. This linkage brings many benefits, in which the Cooperative manages the process of caring for and harvesting tea from households to bring to the market products that ensure quality and food hygiene and safety. From this linkage, the Cooperative has been proactive in the source of raw materials in production and consumption.

According to the report of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, up to now, the whole province has 5,148 hectares of tea certified to meet VietGAP and organic standards (of which, 5,068 hectares are certified to VietGAP and 80 hectares are organic), accounting for nearly 23% of the tea area of the whole province. Along with expanding the tea area produced according to VietGAP and organic standards, the province has promoted the establishment and issuance of growing area codes, supporting businesses and cooperatives to build brands and promote product consumption.

Brand building associated with trade promotion

Since 2020, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has deployed, disseminated, and guided the establishment of tea growing area codes. Currently, the province manages and supervises 45 tea growing area codes (25 export codes and 20 domestic codes), which are located on the GPS system to trace the origin of products and comply with the prescribed criteria. With the support of the province, enterprises, cooperatives, and tea growers have paid special attention to building brands associated with product promotion and consumption.

With the advantage of being located in the land of Tan Cuong, the "first famous tea", with passion and love for tea trees, Hao Dat Tea Cooperative has researched and strictly applied the process of planting, caring for and processing to create drinks that captivate people. The Moc Cau tea product of Hao Dat Tea Cooperative is honored to be among the 173 typical rural industrial products at the national level in 2023. Hao Dat tea products all have QR codes and the management of tea product quality is also applied digital transformation.

Ms. Dao Thanh Hao, Director of Hao Dat Tea Cooperative, shared: The core value of tea products is quality, not quantity. To date, the Cooperative has produced 14 product lines to serve consumers with different incomes. The Cooperative's products currently have 50 agents nationwide.

For Ha Thai Tea Joint Stock Company - one of the pioneers in building and bringing the Thai tea brand to the world, they have also chosen the "organic" direction for sustainable development. Thanks to that, at the 2016 International Tea Competition held in Canada, the Company's Tom Non tea product has excelled over dozens of typical tea products from many countries to win the Silver prize.

Talking to us, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hien, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Ha Thai Tea Joint Stock Company, confided: To create the best products for export to demanding markets, we constantly improve the production line, cooperate with people to meet strict standards on raw materials and quality. The first step is the VietGAP standard of Vietnam, then the standards of Europe, America... The collective trademark "Thai Nguyen Tea" continues to be successfully registered for protection in Russia, Japan and Korea, helping us have more "big seas" to export our standard tea products.

Market Management Team No. 2 strengthens inspection and guides cooperatives to register standards and traceability codes on tea product packaging.

Along with brand building, the promotion and consumption of tea products are also of special interest to provincial leaders and departments, branches and localities. In 2023, the Provincial People's Committee and Vietnam Airlines Corporation signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement for the period 2023-2027, opening up opportunities for both sides to develop tourism promotion, trade investment and aviation. Currently, Tan Cuong Xanh Trading and Import-Export Company Limited has been honored to become a supplier of Thai Nguyen tea on Vietnam Airlines flights and has exported shipments to the UK. OCOP-certified tea products are connected, promoted, introduced and consumed on e-commerce platforms such as Vo So (voso.vn), PostMart (postmart.vn)... In particular, Thai Nguyen tea products are also consumed through Vietnamese Points of Sale with the name "Pride of Vietnamese Products".

Planning associated with brand protection

Currently, the province has 38 enterprises, 163 cooperatives, 251 traditional craft villages, with over 91,000 households processing green tea. Although the province has formed many concentrated tea production areas, production is still mainly on a household scale, the scale of cooperatives is still small, the number of households participating in cooperatives is not much, accounting for about 7.2% of the number of tea-producing households in the province. On the other hand, the area of tea produced according to VietGAP and organic standards is still low.

According to Dr. Nguyen Huu Tai, Chairman of the Vietnam Tea Association: The biggest limitation of Thai Nguyen is the fragmented raw material area and small-scale production model, leading to many difficulties in tea quality management. Meanwhile, the requirements for food safety and hygiene are increasingly higher and stricter. Therefore, the construction of cooperative models and production linkages between households is extremely necessary. For tea trees to develop sustainably, the province needs to review and plan the overall tea planting and processing according to the value chain from technical infrastructure to ancillary activities, services, trade, combining tea-growing ecotourism, meeting the requirements of safe production and processing towards organic production.

In 2023, the value of processed tea products in the whole province will reach 12.3 trillion VND (an increase of 1.9 trillion VND compared to 2022). Thai Nguyen aims to have a tea area of 23.5 thousand hectares by 2025, with fresh tea bud output reaching 273 thousand tons; product value per hectare of tea growing land reaching 350 million VND/year.

Along with that, it is necessary to pay attention to protecting the tea brand because for a long time, intellectual property rights violations for Thai Nguyen tea products have been happening, if not common; further raise the awareness of tea growers and processors in creating quality-assured products; authorities, functional branches, and localities need to continue to guide tea growers to expand the area of VietGap and organic tea. At the same time, exploit digital platforms in product promotion and expand sales channels. Strengthen inspection, control, and management of quality, trademarks, and brands of tea products, as well as encourage linkages and cooperation to unify the application of production processes, creating tea products of uniform quality and in large quantities; build production models, tea craft villages associated with eco-tourism and cuisine to enhance the value and brand of Thai Nguyen tea.

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