Connecting tourism to the poetic island of Cai Chien with the tea hills and culture of the highland people is the orientation of Hai Ha, which has been gradually realized by the locality. Thereby, expanding opportunities for the development of community ecotourism in Hai Ha in particular and the northeastern border areas of Quang Ninh in general.
A lifelong attachment to tea trees
Tea trees were experimentally planted in Hai Ha since the 60s of the last century, starting with mass planting in village 8, Quang Long commune, then expanding to the entire commune and neighboring communes. Over the past 60 years, tea trees have gone through many ups and downs with the local people to today, the tea growing area of Hai Ha has reached more than 800 hectares, becoming the largest concentrated tea growing area in Quang Ninh.
The attachment of tea trees to the lives of the people of Quang Long commune is extremely close. Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thu, village 7, Quang Long commune, shared: Tea has been attached to us since the 90s, tea trees help our family have the conditions to take care of our children's education, ensuring a stable family economy. Although the tea growing profession has its ups and downs, we have never thought of abandoning tea trees, because my parents came here in 1961 to grow tea, now these tea gardens are handed over to us, their children. If we abandon tea trees during difficult times, when the price goes up, we will not be able to recover, so we always have to take care of tea trees, still have to stick with tea trees...
Telling us about growing tea, Mrs. Thu said that growing tea is better than other farming jobs. She analyzed: After harvesting, the fresh tea is sold to businesses and purchasing facilities to process tea in the area. They will buy all the tea as soon as it is picked, so there is no unsold tea. For 1 ton of fresh tea, the business buys at 8,000 VND/ kg, which is 8 million VND. After deducting expenses, we still have a profit of 6 million VND/ ton of tea, which still brings high economic efficiency. In addition, when planting tea, we pick it and then take care of it until the next crop. A crop of tea lasts about 40 days, requiring about 12-14 days/month to take care of the plants and harvest the tea. The remaining time we can do other things, such as planting rice, going to the market... to earn extra income, and we do not have to be with the tea plants all the time.
Coming to Quang Long commune to ask about tea trees, everyone was excited. Through research, it was known that in the Resolution of the Commune Party Committee for the term 2020-2025, tea trees were identified as the main tree of the commune. Therefore, the locality has had solutions to increase the area, towards producing high-quality tea, increasing production value. The commune has mobilized people to convert tea varieties from small-leaf, low-quality midland tea trees to high-quality tea varieties such as Ngoc Thuy, Huong Bac Son, increasing the yield and quality of tea trees with many different solutions, from conventional care to organic tea care, establishing cooperatives to develop tea trees.
Mr. Nguyen The Khanh, Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Quang Long Commune, said that from many synchronous solutions like that, in the recent period, the commune has converted over 40 hectares of high-quality tea, forming cooperatives growing tea in an organic direction. Quality and productivity have changed significantly, if previously 1 hectare only brought in an income of 50-70 million VND/year, now it must be increased 2 or 3 times.
In the coming period, the commune will continue to focus on developing tea trees, introducing high-tech machinery for production and processing, creating clean products for the market: Fertilizing with organic fertilizers, spraying pesticides according to instructions, dosage, harvesting periodically, ensuring compliance with VietGAP procedures. Gradually, all small-leaf midland tea varieties will be replaced with Ngoc Thuy tea... for higher productivity and quality. The commune currently has over 350 households producing, processing and trading tea. Tea trees provide people with a stable source of income, with an average income of 150-200 million VND/ha/year per hectare.
Local staple agricultural products
Over time, the people of Hai Ha tea region have found the right direction to increase the value of tea trees. Although compared to many large tea regions in the country, Hai Ha tea cannot be in the top, but has shown remarkable progress, promising prosperity in the future. With the orientation of growing from tea trees, Hai Ha identifies the tea growing region as the main production area of the local agricultural and forestry sector.
Mr. Nguyen Huu Liem, Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee, said: Hai Ha has included in the Resolution of the 22nd District Party Congress for the 2020-2025 term, the development of a Project to restructure the tea industry. In particular, the district has focused on organic tea production. Currently, the locality maintains more than 800 hectares of tea, of which organic tea accounts for more than 100 hectares, mainly produced according to VietGAP standards and in accordance with the guidance of the Northern Mountainous Agricultural and Forestry Science and Technology Institute.
He analyzed: Organic tea buds are very thick, the tea yield is very high, previously only reaching about 100,000 VND/kg of finished product, but up to now, when implementing the organic direction, the value of tea has increased sharply, some types have reached 1.2 million VND/kg. Some tea varieties that produce Oolong tea have very high value, such as tea of Viet Tu Investment, Construction and Trading Company Limited, which has been introduced to foreign markets such as Taiwan, China, Korea, and is preparing to introduce to Japan. The entire tea area of Viet Tu is grown in an organic direction, so the tea quality is very good. Producing Oolong tea contributes greatly to the district's agricultural sector.
In addition, the district has also piloted the model of growing Huong Bac Son tea with about 35 hectares supported by Phu Tho Tea Farm, which is currently growing well. In the coming period, the district will continue to follow the direction of the province to expand and maintain from 850 hectares, promoting the organic tea growing area to about 300 hectares. Organic production will bring Hai Ha tea products to the international market.
Tea hill tourism orientation
Along with promoting production, Hai Ha has been determining to expand the development of eco-tourism in the tea area. The promotion of the tea hill tourism model is carried out by the locality first of all through organizing tea festivals. From 2018 to 2023, Quang Long commune is a large tea growing area of the district, annually organizing the Tra Duong Hoa Cultural - Tourism Festival. This year, at the end of October, Hai Ha upgraded for the first time to organize the Tra Duong Hoa Festival at the district level with many unique contents, both honoring the Duong Hoa tea tree, promoting the district's key OCOP tea brand, and creating opportunities for visitors from near and far to explore the unique cultural and natural beauty of Hai Ha land.
With the tea trees and Duong Hoa tea products, along with the activities of displaying and introducing products, the festival also brings interesting experiences to visitors: Discovering the beauty of the tea hills when participating in cycling races, jogging around the tea hills; experiencing tea culture when participating in tea making art performances, tea picking competitions, traditional manual tea roasting; enjoying the flavor of Duong Hoa tea through cups of tea, tea cuisine with the typical flavor of Hai Ha land...
Sharing with us, Mr. Bui Thanh Tuan, Head of the District Culture and Information Department, expressed: We hope that through the festival, we will spread the image of the province's large tea area of more than 800 hectares with a historical tradition of more than 60 years as well as promote the Duong Hoa tea brand to a large number of people and tourists. Thereby, it also contributes to encouraging and motivating people to contribute to the development of the tea area. Finally, we want to develop a new tourist destination to experience and explore agricultural tourism and tea hill tourism in the district. We will propose to the district leaders to maintain the tea festival as an annual festival of Hai Ha...
Through research, it is known that the district is implementing the Project "Developing tourism and preserving and promoting the cultural values of Hai Ha district in the period of 2021-2025, with a vision to 2030", determining the development of tourism products based on the potential strengths and cultural identity, natural values of the locality. Accordingly, the locality determines to build a tourism product to explore tea hills connecting with Cai Chien island tourism recognized as a provincial tourist area and cultural experience tourism of ethnic minorities in the highlands of Quang Son, Quang Duc communes and border experiences in the district.
Talking to us about the development direction of Hai Ha tea hill tourism, Mr. Nguyen Huu Liem, Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee, added: The locality has identified 3 areas to develop eco-tourism associated with tea hills. In particular, the tea hills of Viet Tu Construction and Trade Investment Company Limited will be assigned to enterprises to implement according to the enterprise - farmer model to develop tourism. The remaining tea fields in villages 8 and 9 of Quang Long and Quang Son communes, the district will invest in traffic routes, some locations will build some guard huts or preliminary processing workshops to serve tourists to experience tea picking, tea drying and tea processing...
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