Farmers 'change their lives' thanks to the yellow camellia tree

The yellow camellia, also known as yellow tea, is a wild plant that has been of interest to local people for more than two decades. However, in the beginning, only a few people knew how to use the leaves and flowers to boil water for drinking without fully realizing its rare medicinal value. Only when the potential and economic value of yellow camellia was confirmed, did this plant truly "revive", being grown en masse by farmers and quickly becoming a crop with high economic efficiency.

The story of Mr. Ban Van Mui, a resident of Ban Mun village, Bach Thong commune, is a clear example of this transformation. For many years, Mr. Mui's family has had a stable income from the yellow camellia garden. After learning about the market, the growth and development of the camellia tree, and finding it suitable for the local soil and climate conditions, he boldly brought the tree to his home garden to try planting. Surprisingly, the yellow camellia tree grew very well without needing much care. From the initial success, Mr. Mui planted the seeds himself and gradually expanded it. Up to now, his family's yellow camellia garden has grown to 600 hundred trees, bringing in hundreds of millions of dong each year from selling flowers and leaves, becoming a significant source of income for the family.

Mr. Ly Dinh Van, Head of Ban Mun Village, shared that the yellow camellia tree was originally a wild plant growing in the forest, but in recent years, when seeing its economic efficiency, many households have brought it to their home gardens to plant, care for and protect it. Mr. Ban Van Mui's household is one of the pioneers, boldly planting and successfully domesticating it. Seeing the effectiveness, many other households have followed suit, bringing the total number of households growing yellow camellia in the whole village to about 20 households. Ban Mun Village has 84 households, mainly Dao ethnic people. Thanks to high economic value crops such as yellow camellia, currently, the village has only 2 poor households left. This shows the important role of yellow camellia in sustainable poverty reduction, improving the livelihoods of local people...

Golden flower tea has high economic value, especially the flowers. The flower season lasts from December of the previous year to the end of March of the following year. Currently, the price of each kilogram of fresh flowers ranges from 350,000 VND to 500,000 VND. In addition, fresh fruit is also priced at 90,000 VND/kg and fresh leaves are 20,000 VND/kg, while the market demand is still very large. The economic attractiveness has promoted the formation of a value chain, from cultivation to processing. In the northern region of Thai Nguyen province, there are currently more than 4 cooperatives and enterprises that have linked with farmers to grow, process and develop golden flower tea products that meet 3-star and 4-star OCOP standards. The close cooperation between enterprises and farmers not only contributes to the development of clean and sustainable medicinal herb areas for processing and export but also helps to preserve and maintain valuable genetic resources of medicinal plants.

A typical example of sustainable association and value chain building is Ha Diep Company Limited. In 2021, the company invested in building a factory and a large-scale processing machinery system. Ms. Ha Minh Doi, Director of the company, said that the company has coordinated with experts to research soil and climate and invested in planting more than 15 hectares of yellow tea flowers in Don Phong commune (Bach Thong district) and Dong Thang (Cho Don district).

In particular, Ha Diep Company Limited has applied modern freeze-drying technology to create whole-flower yellow tea products. This technology helps the product retain its shape and color almost intact as when fresh and fully preserves the content of precious micronutrients. Up to now, the company has had diverse products such as whole-flower tea, tea bags, and yellow flower tea wine. The company's whole-flower yellow tea and tea bags have been recognized as 4-star OCOP products and are now available at major supermarket systems nationwide at high prices. From being at risk of depletion in nature, yellow flower tea trees are now being propagated and grown more and more in the northern communes of Thai Nguyen province. The formation and development of a chain linking planting, care, and processing has created a strong driving force for the development of this plant.

In fact, the yellow camellia has transformed from a wild plant into a key crop, contributing significantly to sustainable poverty reduction and new rural construction in the locality, promoting the value of indigenous medicinal plants, improving economic efficiency for farmers and building a typical agricultural product brand for the northern region of Thai Nguyen province.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/kinh-te/nong-dan-doi-doi-nho-cay-tra-hoa-vang-20251120074620771.htm