Tea harvested area by provinces
Source: MARDThanks to favorable natural conditions for tea planting, Vietnam can growth and offer a diversity of tea species thanks to natural condition variety. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development, the area under tea plantation totaled 130,000 ha in the country by the end of 2014. Lam Dong, Thai Nguyen, Ha Giang, Phu Tho and Yen Bai were the provinces with the largest tea plantation areas.
Tea species of Vietnam
Type of tea
Characteristics
Green tea
Natural flavor and those with flowers such as Jessamine, lotus, etc.
Black tea
With modern production lines, Vietnam can produce all types of this tea (Orthodox, CTC) with good quality and better and has exported to many markets in the world.
Oolong tea
With special tea types which are imported from China and Taiwan and experimented by growing in big deal in Moc Chau and Lam Dong highland; together with Oolong tea production line of Vietnam;
Boiled tea:
Transparently green water, soft taste and tea’s special natural flavor; it may be embalmed or not. This product is consumed at home and in countries in East Asia.
Fried tea
Strong taste, can be used as materials for embalmed tea
Dries-boiled tea
In helical round shape, green water, strong taste and beloved to drink in the Asian market.
Japanese green tea
Produced by an automatic production line of Japan. Product is featured with green water, natural flavor. It is consumed at home and in Asian market.
Vietnam is the fifth largest tea exporter in the world, but tea is mainly exported as a raw product with low export price, equal to about half of the world's average price. Vietnam holds the modest position of material supplier and pre processor in the world tea value chain. After importing raw materials, tea companies will process, mix and package into final products. Foreign tea companies normally gain the highest value in the chain through the processes of mixing and packaging, although they are not directly tea suppliers. Being raw material suppliers, developing countries like Viet Nam lose the opportunity of higher export turnover gaining from deep processing.
Falling exports are putting pressure on the tea industry to enhance product quality amid rapid international integration associated with growing harsh competition.
According to statistics of the General Custom Office, tea exports dropped by 5.6 percent in volume to 79,000 tonnes and 4.8 percent in value to reach 134 million USD in the first eight months of this year, compared with the same period last year. Quality is currently the greatest problem that the tea industry encounters, which could lead to loss of export markets to competitors.
There are many factors affecting the Vietnamese tea quality, including scattered cultivation, lack of management of pesticide use, outdated farming techniques and lack of coordination between plantations and processing and distribution.
In the coming time, the tea farming methods must be improved to meet hygiene standards for domestic consumption as well as exports, including the planning of tea plantation areas for processing firms. The development of a Vietnamese tea brand together with the organization of trade promotion activities is also indispensable for boosting tea exports.
To help tea products really stand firm on the market, Vietnam needs to start from quality. According to economic experts, along with the brand, quality tea must be placed on top. Therefore, along with the application of more scientific methods to production techniques, especially on the structure of new varieties, harvesting, and processing quality assurance, tea production enterprises should strengthen production and guarantee quality to produce standard tea for food safety.
The Government needs to organize a tea trading floor for businesses to introduce and sell their products in a transparent and fair way, to set the stage for the birth of the tea auction centre in the future. Doing this not only helps businesses enhance the tea brand, but also limits sewn-mediated sales, and eliminates indecent tactics of the traders. In addition, the units of production and tea processing should actively seek domestic and foreign markets in order to develop appropriate strategies to meet their markets.
