Focus on safe tea production

In order to increase the value of tea trees and bring the Dat To tea brand to a wider reach, Phu Tho province has encouraged households, cooperatives, and businesses to invest in safe and organic production. In order to restructure the tea industry, recently, the Department of Agriculture and localities in the province have reviewed and arranged processing facilities and organized production. There have been many policies of the province to support production and processing to improve the quality and value of Phu Tho tea products.

The Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection inspected the organic tea production process at Hoang Van Tea Cooperative, Van Luong Commune, Tan Son District.

Currently, the total tea area of ​​the province is about 14,500 hectares, of which the area for products is about 13,900 hectares, the rate of new tea varieties is nearly 78%, the output of fresh tea buds is approximately 179,000 tons. In order to improve economic efficiency in tea production, build the tea industry into a key industry with high added value of the province, the Provincial People's Committee issued Plan No. 3092/KH-UBND dated August 10, 2022 on tea development in the province for the period 2022-2025. Accordingly, by 2025, the tea area of ​​the province will be stabilized at about 15,700 hectares, the average fresh tea bud yield will reach 125 quintals/ha, the output will reach 195,000 tons. At the same time, focus on applying technical measures, safety standards, management systems, and productivity improvement tools in tea production and processing. Strive for 90% of tea area applying IPM; tea area applying good and safe production processes (GlobalGAP, RA, VietGAP, organic...) accounts for nearly 50% (about 6,000 hectares, of which 2,600 hectares are newly certified to meet VietGAP standards).

Along with that, diversify tea products, strive for the proportion of green tea and deeply processed tea products (Oolong, herbs, matcha...) to reach over 40% in the processing structure; strive for the average product value of green tea to reach about 135 million VND/ha; the proportion of products produced under the forms of cooperation and association to reach 40%; strive for 100% of concentrated tea production areas to be managed, assigned codes for growing areas, packaging facilities, and traceability according to the requirements of importing countries...

By the end of 2023, the area of ​​tea certified for safety will reach over 4,100 hectares, of which the area certified for RA will be over 3,600 hectares, VietGAP will be over 424 hectares; the application of integrated pest management IPM and ICM on tea trees will reach about 78% of the total area. The above results show that awareness of safe production among tea growers is increasingly improving. Ms. Le Thi Phuong, owner of Bang Phuong tea processing facility, Thu Cuc commune, Tan Son district shared: “My family has more than 1 hectare of tea that has been certified by VietGAP. As a producer, I always want to bring good quality and safe products to consumers. Growing tea in a safe VietGAP direction not only ensures the health of the growers but also helps reduce costs on fertilizers and pesticides because we can utilize agricultural by-products as fertilizers, use insect trap systems to kill pests... Safe tea production is also one of the competitive solutions for product consumption today”.

According to Mr. Phan Van Dao - Head of the Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection, tea is one of the province's key crops, most of the total tea output is used to process green tea and black tea for export. Currently, technical barriers of countries are increasingly tightening food safety standards. In order for the province's tea products to be easily consumed in international markets, in the coming time, in addition to planning safe tea areas, the province has built tea production models according to the Project "Improving the quality and safety of agricultural products" (QSEAP) focusing mainly on key districts. This is the basis for attracting investment in the production of high-quality, high-value commercial tea. In particular, focusing on building safe tea material production areas in an organic direction, limiting the use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides; applying GAP processes, from production to final product processing, towards organic tea production.

Phan Cuong

Source: https://baophutho.vn/chu-trong-san-xuat-che-an-toan-212754.htm