She once vowed not to follow in her family's footsteps in farming, but later she did not hesitate to "work hard" to build a tea garden because she wanted to contribute to raising the level of her hometown's products.
Quitting her office job, Ms. Hoang Thi Thuy Van (29 years old), residing in Hoang Nong commune, Dai Tu district, Thai Nguyen, returned to her hometown to start making tea using natural farming methods to promote sustainable agricultural development in the locality.
Ms. Hoang Thi Thuy Van builds a tea garden using natural farming methods.
NVCC
I wanted to cut down all my parents' tea hills.
When she was a child, Van often followed her parents to the hills to pick tea leaves until dark. For her, a nap at that time was a distant dream. Seeing her parents working hard but earning only 2 million VND/month, she could not help but feel heartbroken. Haunted by that hardship, Van's three siblings vowed to "say goodbye" to farming and when they became successful, they would return to their hometown to cut down all the family's tea hills .
At the end of 2014, Ms. Van started her career as a sales specialist in Hanoi. With her efforts, she was always rewarded "hotly" when achieving many good results. However, one day she got food poisoning, combined with the feeling of suffocation when living in the city, she recalled her family's green tea fields and realized that the countryside was where she belonged.
Thinking so, in March 2019, she packed her bags and left the city, and was strongly opposed by her parents. "My parents worked so hard to raise their children and escape the hardships of farming. Therefore, seeing me give up such a stable career, my parents were shocked. My parents and I couldn't even talk to each other for the first year," she confided.
Without support from her family, she decided to cultivate on land rented from the locals. She chose a location halfway up the Tam Dao mountain range, near the headwaters of the stream and separate from other gardens. The variety she chose was indigenous midland tea that was over 40 years old.
Ms. Van welcomed foreign guests at her tea factory.
With the motto of "relying on nature", she prioritizes creating a source of nutrients on the spot for the garden. Seeing grass as a friend of farmers, instead of destroying it, she chooses to grow grass in her own way. She said that not only does it provide shade, grass also prevents erosion and limits the phenomenon of washing away on the ground. In addition, she intercrops with green manure plants as well as supplements nutrients for the garden with soybeans or manure during the initial period of soil improvement, depending on the soil conditions of each area.
The first batch of tea after 46 days was attacked by pests, the buds were sparse, the plants were stunted; the third batch of tea after 5 months had leaf burn symptoms. Also during the early days of starting her business, every time she returned home, she had to change her clothes to be neat before daring to meet her parents because she did not want them to see her dirty appearance. Moreover, the people in the commune at that time did not trust her farming methods, thinking that she would not achieve anything. Despite the difficulties, she was still determined to achieve her goal.
"Give wings" to homeland tea
In mid-2020, her weeding method began to take effect. Thanks to that, the tea buds in her garden remained lush and sturdy despite the harsh summer sun, while the tea buds in other gardens withered. People around her gradually changed their perspective and came to her to learn her growing method.
During her entrepreneurial journey, Ms. Van had trustworthy partners. Among them was her older sister who gave up her 10-year teaching experience to return to her hometown to climb mountains and wade through streams under the scorching sun. At this time, when seeing Ms. Van's determination and the effectiveness of her work, her parents gave her a piece of land to renovate into a factory as well as create conditions to install additional equipment. However, she still kept the original processing method of 100% using firewood to preserve the original flavor of tea.
In August 2021, Ms. Van's An Van Tra workshop was recognized as meeting ISO standards. In addition to being present in major cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, her products are also sought after by many customers in the US and Germany. In particular, applying the experimental agricultural model, Ms. Van and the members of the workshop had the opportunity to welcome many domestic and international tourists to visit and learn about the cultivation methods in the tea garden, including representatives of the Malaysian Consulate General.
Having enjoyed Ms. Van's products, Mr. Nguyen Thanh (30 years old, living in Hanoi) commented: "Van's tea products have a beautiful lemon yellow color and retain their flavor for a long time, even the next day. The tea is not too astringent and has a characteristic sweet aftertaste. I also highly appreciate the fact that Van does not choose to use chemicals to ensure that the tea is made as naturally as possible."
Talking about An Van Tra's mission, Ms. Van expressed: "I hope for nothing more than to be able to bring healthy and clean products to consumers as well as contribute to helping local people have a different perspective on organic farming ."
Thanhnien.vn
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