Enhancing the value and spreading the Phu Tho Tea brand

As one of the provinces with the largest tea growing area in the country, tea trees have become an important source of income, contributing significantly to the agricultural export turnover of Phu Tho. Currently, with the development of certification labels, brand building, innovation in processing technology and expansion of consumption markets, Phu Tho tea is gradually increasing its value and affirming its quality in the market.

Brand affirmation

The whole province has over 14,500 hectares of tea, concentrated in the old Phu Tho area with about 13,600 hectares. From this area, each year produces over 182,000 tons of fresh tea buds, of which concentrated production areas with an area of ​​nearly 6,000 hectares have been planned. The formation of large raw material areas creates conditions for technical advances and mechanization in the care and harvesting stages to be widely applied, ensuring food safety, improving productivity and quality. Along with that, the system of processing facilities has been gradually invested, giving an average output of over 60,000 tons/year, meeting the diverse needs of the domestic and export markets. In particular, the replacement of old tea varieties with new, high-quality varieties, accounting for more than 75% of the area, contributes significantly to increasing productivity and quality of tea.

The concentrated tea material area is favorable for cultivation, care and mechanization in production.

In 2020, the Department of Intellectual Property ( Ministry of Science and Technology ) granted the right to protect the Phu Tho Tea certification trademark for the province's tea products, which is a solid foundation to promote the development of the tea industry. On that basis, the province has implemented many synchronous activities to support organizations and individuals in exploiting the value of the trademark. Cooperatives and tea production enterprises are trained on management regulations and instructions on building production processes according to VietGAP, ISO, HACCP standards... Through science and technology development programs and plans, industrial promotion programs, many units are supported in designing packaging and product labels to achieve OCOP certification, building a product traceability system, registering intellectual property protection, building standard raw material areas, applying advanced machinery, scientific and technical advances in production, supporting product trade promotion... Thanks to that, many tea regions have improved their quality, meeting the increasingly stringent requirements of the market.

Up to now, 15 organizations, enterprises and cooperatives have been granted the right to use the Phu Tho Tea certification trademark with 18 OCOP products, including 2 5-star OCOP products.

UT Tea Investment and Development Company Limited (Thanh Ba Commune) specializes in producing black tea and green tea for export, with a processing capacity of over 1,000 tons of products/year, cooperating with about 300 tea growing households on an area of ​​320 hectares. In particular, the company develops a line of specialty purple bud tea products that achieve the National 5-star OCOP. Ms. Le Thi Hong Phuong, Director of the company said: “Being granted the right to use the Phu Tho Tea certification mark helps the company's products increase customer confidence and make it easier to expand the market. On that basis, we focus on building a strict production process, investing in technology and professionalizing operations, meeting the increasingly high demands of domestic and foreign partners. The company fully implements recommendations on techniques for planting, caring for, preserving and processing safe tea; improves packaging and designs, applies advanced management systems, traceability... so that the products achieve stable quality, clear origin and suitability to consumer tastes.”

Besides the potential, Phu Tho tea industry still faces some difficulties such as: The connection between raw material areas and processing facilities is not really tight, many products are consumed through traders, lacking stable contracts. Black tea products, raw exports still account for a large proportion so the economic value is not high.

These problems require synchronous solutions to improve production efficiency, stabilize output and increase the value of tea products.

Opening the way for sustainable development

After the administrative boundary merger, the tea area of ​​Phu Tho province has been expanded, and the products have become more diverse. In addition to the products associated with the land and facilities that are already familiar, there are now Yen Thuy tea, Shan Tuyet Pa Co tea, Song Boi tea... making the story of Dat To tea more diverse, rich in identity and promising. This is an important advantage for the province to continue restructuring the tea industry in a modern direction, linking production with processing and building brands.

The reality of tea development in many localities shows great potential if exploited in the right direction. In the context of strong digital transformation and increasing demands for the application of science and technology, the tea industry needs to proactively innovate production and consumption methods. The focus is on promoting the application of high technology, biotechnology, safe and organic production processes, combined with smart production support tools to improve productivity, quality and competitiveness of products.

At the same time, functional sectors and localities need to continue to encourage the improvement of the effectiveness of tea production organization forms in the direction of strengthening contractual linkages between processing enterprises and cooperatives, cooperative groups, building raw material areas and product consumption. Adjusting product structure, increasing the proportion of green tea in processing; building and developing ecological tea production areas associated with tourism development, experiential tourism spots, agricultural tourism, and craft villages.

Many units and production facilities have implemented this direction, bringing positive signals and Long Coc Safe Tea Production Cooperative (Long Coc commune) is an example. The Cooperative was established in 2018, with a cultivation and association area of ​​nearly 40 hectares, of which 15 hectares meet VietGAP standards, with an annual output of about 10 tons of finished tea with typical lines such as premium Bat Tien, Dinh tea, and Shan Tuyet tea. Ms. Pham Thi Hanh - Director of the Cooperative shared: "Long Coc Tea Cooperative currently has 4 tea products that meet OCOP standards at the provincial level. In order for Long Coc tea to not only be an agricultural product but also a tourism product, we focus on clean production processes, packaging designs and stories associated with the tea region. In particular, combining the development of tea hill experience tourism helps the product become more widely known, visitors can both enjoy tea and learn about the production process, creating a foundation for market expansion".

It can be seen that when production is associated with tourism experiences, the value of tea trees is increased, people have a new source of income, and at the same time the image of the tea region is also spread more strongly. This is a concrete proof that tea development does not stop at agricultural products but also opens up new directions in exploiting cultural and landscape values.

Along with that, to solve the important problem of output, functional sectors need to improve their capacity to forecast and analyze the market, promptly provide information to help businesses, cooperatives and households proactively adjust production plans. Build a modern tea supply system, connecting production with distribution and consumption into a stable and sustainable value chain; increase support for creating, managing, exploiting and developing brands, trademarks and intellectual property for tea products associated with the One Commune One Product Program.

In addition to the advantages of Phu Tho tea in terms of quality, production factors, and traditional cultural consumption, developing with brands and trademarks is a suitable direction, becoming an effective tool in sustainable development of production and market. Synchronous solutions will be the foundation for Phu Tho tea brand to be upgraded, increase its value and affirm its position as a typical product of the Ancestral Land.

Nguyen Hue

Source: https://baophutho.vn/nang-tam-gia-tri-lan-toa-thuong-hieu-che-phu-tho-239440.htm