THAI NGUYEN He returned to make tea, fed the plants with 'chicken eggs', and fertilized them with organic fertilizer with the wish to hear the birds singing and see the bees and butterflies flying back...
Editor's note: Phu Luong is a mountainous district of Thai Nguyen province with diverse soil conditions, favorable for the growth and development of many specialty crops. This is the second largest tea producing region in Thai Nguyen province after Dai Tu district; On Luong sticky rice and lychee region creates the famous Bo Dau banh chung village nationwide; a large medicinal herb region...
Dreaming of Japanese-style organic tea fields
Khe Coc village, Tuc Tranh commune (Phu Luong district, Thai Nguyen province) is as beautiful as a steppe with long tea hills and cool breezes. Groups of bees come to collect honey from the pistils of tea flowers. Mr. To Van Khiem, Director of Khe Coc Safe Tea Cooperative, said that bees are very smart and sensitive, if the flowers were not clean, they would not come in such large numbers. They are as passionate about sucking honey as people are about the taste of tea from the hills here.
Mr. To Van Khiem, Director of Khe Coc Safe Tea Cooperative (left) next to his family's organic tea garden. Photo: Dao Thanh.
Mr. Khiem is one of the first artisans in Thai Nguyen province to be awarded the title of Tea Processing Artisan. His hometown is in Phu Xuyen district, Hanoi. At the age of 5, Khiem followed his parents to Khe Coc to build a new economic zone and develop the economy from tea trees. Then, during a period of economic recession, tea trees lost their value and were forced to lower their prices by traders, so tea makers like him had to give up tea to find other jobs to make a living.
Mr. Khiem said that he also wanted to stick with the tea plant, but the burden of raising two children to study, if he continued to pursue the tea industry, would not be enough to send them through high school and university. He had to give up the tea plant, leave his hometown for a city to open a restaurant and start a business.
I asked: Opening a restaurant and tea trees seem to have no connection. So what made you come back to tea trees?
He replied: In 2011, in addition to opening a restaurant, he organized tours abroad, including a trip to Japan where he followed a group to the Chiba tea region of Japan. Here, the tea hills are thick and beautiful, and they say they are grown organically. At that time, he did not understand what organic was, he only knew that it was a way of fertilizing without using chemical fertilizers or pesticides. "Our ancestors have been doing this for a long time, since the 80s and 90s of the last century, there were no chemical fertilizers, so why don't we do it?", he thought.
Since planting and caring for it according to organic standards, Mr. Khiem's tea garden has attracted many bee colonies to collect honey. Photo: Dao Thanh.
The Japanese way of making organic tea haunted and urged him to return to Khe Coc, the mountainous place that nurtured his childhood, where the tea fields he had left behind were. He gathered people with the same new ideas to build a cooperative.
At that time, no one wanted to follow him. They said that listening to his story was like walking on clouds. Because people sprayed pesticides all over the tea fields but the worms were still there, let alone growing tea without spraying anything. That was unthinkable. They even said that making clean tea would attract tourists. Which tourist would want to go to a place as remote as Khe Coc...?
In the first years of making clean tea, he bought dozens of tons of bananas for his family and the cooperative as fertilizer, combined with composted manure from cow dung; decomposed biological solution. Using organic fertilizers has significantly reduced the yield of tea plants, about 40%. This made him and the villagers quite worried. Although it was difficult, he was determined not to be discouraged. Because if tea farmers kept carrying a bottle of medicine on their backs, it would be like slowly wearing themselves to death. Like that, no matter how much money they made, how much gold they saved, when they got sick, they would spend it all on the hospital.
Since 2018, Mr. Khiem's tea fields have been free of chemicals. Now his cooperative has hundreds of hectares of organically produced tea, of which 20 hectares have been certified as organic.
He said he was even happier when success gradually blossomed, many other farmers' hands also held his, heading towards the road ahead, arduous but full of hope for the famous and renowned organic tea region.
Feed the tea "eating" chicken eggs
The story of Mr. Khiem buying chicken eggs to fertilize his tea leaves continues to surprise tea growers in Tuc Tranh and the entire Thai Nguyen province. Because chicken eggs are expensive and the tea fields are hundreds of hectares wide, how many eggs are enough?
Mr. Khiem explained: If you don't understand clearly, everyone will think so, but in fact the chicken eggs he bought were all discarded chicken eggs (incubated eggs, spoiled eggs) at a very cheap price (less than 1,000 VND/kg), and each kg had more than 10 eggs. He brought those eggs home, diluted them with water, and then watered them on the tea roots. Every time it was time to harvest, this tea was classified separately to create special products with better, more fragrant tea.
Automatic irrigation system in Mr. Khiem's family's tea garden. Photo: Dao Thanh.
It was his strange act of feeding tea with chicken eggs that created an opportunity for the tea region to reach the ears of the leaders of Thai Nguyen province. And it was also a chance for the tea plants in that hilly countryside to reach Europe.
He said that in 2019, the leaders of Thai Nguyen province went on a business trip to Europe and the delegation assigned tea cooperatives in the province to make gifts suitable for European culture.
He sought out relatives who had lived and worked in Europe, understood European drinks, and researched to create tea bags, using ingredients from the organic tea regions of his hometown. After testing and selection, the best teas brewed in teapots in Thailand such as Tan Cuong and Trai Cai Dong Hy were all rejected, leaving only tea bags from Khe Coc Safe Tea Cooperative standing firm and being accepted.
Also in 2019, the leaders of Thai Nguyen province introduced Khe Coc Safe Tea Cooperative to a contract, signed at the Thai Nguyen Provincial People's Committee with the Czech Republic market.
That night, Mr. Khiem could not sleep. He looked at the peaceful hills, without human voices, only the chirping of insects, blending with his heart and countless emotions. He thought to himself: Oh hills, oh tea fields, I have done it. Just tomorrow, the aroma of my homeland's tea will fly all the way to Europe, serving the picky but loving and appreciative guests of tea. In that elated feeling, he looked forward to the dawn!
Do not dare to accept a hundred ton contract
The organic tea area of Khe Coc Safe Tea Cooperative covers an area of up to 100 hectares, of which 20 hectares have been certified organic, the rest are being converted. Mr. Khiem said, 100 hectares sounds large but is nothing to big customers. Recently, a partner in Europe wanted to sign a contract for 100 tons but the Cooperative did not dare to accept.
Mr. Khiem checks the automatic irrigation system via smartphone. Photo: Dao Thanh.
I asked: Why don't you dare to accept? He replied: Because you are afraid. Working with Europe is really profitable but their requirements are also very strict. Therefore, we have to be very careful in production.
Like last year, to ensure 13 tons of tea for export to a partner in Europe, the partner required a bet of more than 100 million VND/ton to create a bond between the two parties. If the tea batch did not meet the standards, it would be destroyed, the cooperative would lose more than 10 billion VND in tea and about 1.5 billion VND in deposit. Thus, if the cooperative did not ensure that the tea met safety standards, the risk would be very high.
From there, he realized that farmers are usually satisfied when they have enough to eat and spend. But when they meet customers with high demands, they need to do big business, change their thinking and look to the future. Therefore, expanding and developing good agriculture is very necessary.
The afternoon sun shines through the tea fields, carrying with it the rich, fragrant scent of tea. The essence of the soil and the plants is poured into the young tea buds, then through the skillful hands of the artisans, it is roasted, roasted, and has a rich aroma of Khe Coc hills - a unique tea flavor that when sipped, people will remember forever.
The taste of tea from that mountain is also the smell of the soil, of the source of life, the smell of the distant years, when the soil was still healthy like the wild nature inherent in creation.
Tea products of Khe Coc Safe Tea Cooperative achieved OCOP star. Photo: Dao Thanh.
Mr. Hoang Ngoc Danh, Vice Chairman of Tuc Tranh Commune People's Committee, said that Khe Coc Safe Tea Cooperative is a typical effective tea cooperative of the commune.
Currently, the Cooperative has 5 OCOP products, including 3 4-star products and 2 3-star products. Khe Coc Safe Tea Cooperative is producing and bringing to the market about 12 to 13 different products with prices ranging from 500,000 VND to 1.2 million VND/kg. The Cooperative brings an average income to households associated with the Cooperative of more than 300 million VND, the lowest household also reaches 120 million VND/year.
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