Finding sustainable markets for tea products

Lai Chau currently has a tea business area of ​​8,400 hectares, with growing tea productivity and output. The whole province is aiming for sustainable tea development.

Lai Chau is a locality with favorable natural conditions and land, including 7/10 highest mountain peaks in Vietnam, so it is very suitable for growing tea.

Currently, Lai Chau has over 10,500 hectares of tea, of which the commercial tea area is 8,400 hectares, the average fresh tea bud yield is over 70 quintals/hectare, the fresh tea bud output is over 58 thousand tons/year. The tea area implementing production linkage associated with product consumption is over 7,000 hectares, accounting for 67% of the total area.

Lai Chau tea trees are mainly concentrated in Than Uyen, Tan Uyen, Tam Duong, Phong Tho, Sin Ho districts, Lai Chau city with tea varieties such as: Shan tea, Kim Tuyen, PH8, ancient tea. In which, Tam Duong, Than Uyen, Tan Uyen are localities with large tea areas in Lai Chau province. Taking advantage of natural conditions, policy mechanisms and abundant labor resources, the districts have successfully built a high-quality clean tea brand with the participation of companies, businesses and thousands of households.

Lai Chau focuses on sustainable development of tea trees in the direction of commodities (Photo: Lai Chau Newspaper)

At the Forum on connecting production and consumption of high-quality tea (November 5), Mr. Ha Trong Hai, Vice Chairman of Lai Chau Provincial People's Committee, said that companies, businesses and people producing tea in the province have focused on investing in intensive farming, applying safety standards in production; diversifying designs and products. Lai Chau province also issued policies to support people in developing the tea industry such as: 100% support for seed sources in the first 3 years; input costs and investment of 15 billion VND in production and processing factories.

However, Lai Chau tea industry still has limitations and weaknesses. The production area according to food safety and hygiene standards and regulations (VietGAP, GlobalGAP, RA, organic...) is still small. The province's tea processing facilities are small in scale, processed tea products are mainly raw, with a lack of diversity in design and low competitiveness. In addition, the consumption market is still limited, mainly exporting tea to Middle Eastern countries and Taiwan (China), leading to low prices.

Mr. Ha Trong Hai also said that in the coming time, Lai Chau will focus on sustainable development of tea trees in the direction of commodities, linking production with processing, applying scientific and technological advances in production, protecting the ecological environment, developing products according to the value chain, and improving product competitiveness in the market.

Also at the workshop, a representative of the Vietnam Tea Association said that, in general, Vietnamese tea exports are cheap but still higher than world prices. The Vietnamese tea market is seen by the world as a cheap market and people seek profits here.

Source: https://congthuong.vn/lai-chau-tim-thi-truong-ben-vung-cho-cac-san-pham-che-357178.html