Thai Nguyen tea on the journey to become a strategic agricultural product for billion-dollar exports

With a special position, Thai Nguyen tea is expected to have breakthrough growth in 2025 in terms of area, quality and product value. In particular, Thai Nguyen province also offers a strong roadmap, in the period of 2025-2030, the tea industry will reach 1 billion USD, becoming a strategic agricultural export product.

With the orientation of building tea not only as a key crop but also as a national brand, Thai Nguyen province sets a goal that by 2025, the tea area will reach 23,500 hectares, the output of fresh tea buds will reach 273,000 tons. (Illustration)

Striving to bring the tea industry to reach 1 billion USD in the period 2025–2030

Thai Nguyen is currently the locality with the leading tea area, output and yield in the country. Thai Nguyen tea has long affirmed its position in the domestic and foreign markets with its characteristic flavor, bold sweet aftertaste, which is popular in many customer segments.

With a strategic vision, the province is investing heavily in improving the quality and standardizing the farming process in the direction of organic, VietGAP and GlobalGAP. Many tea regions are planned into concentrated raw material areas, linking production with deep processing and high-tech application.

With the orientation of building tea not only as a key crop but also as a national brand, Thai Nguyen province sets a goal that by 2025, the tea area will reach 23,500 hectares, the output of fresh tea buds will reach 273,000 tons, and in particular, the product value per 1 hectare of tea land will reach 350 million VND. Furthermore, the province strives to bring the tea industry to reach 1 billion USD in the period of 2025-2030, making Thai Nguyen tea a strategic commodity in Vietnam’s agricultural product exports.

In order to promote the development of the tea industry in the province, Thai Nguyen has issued and effectively implemented many policies such as supporting organic and biological fertilizers; certification of safe production according to VietGAP and organic standards; mechanization and application of water-saving irrigation systems in production and equipment in tea processing…

From 2021 to now, the province has planted more than 1,700 hectares of tea, increasing the proportion of tea planted with high-yield and high-quality varieties, accounting for 82.8% of the total existing tea area. The tea varieties being grown in Thai Nguyen are quite diverse, suitable for diversifying tea products and tea products. The group of tea varieties has high yields, lower tannin content than Midland tea varieties, characteristic aroma, suitable for processing diverse products including: LDP1, Kim Tuyen, Huong Bac Son, TRI777, TRI5.0, Bat Tien, Phuc Van Tien, LCT1, PH1, PH12, PH14, VN15…

Currently, the province has over 7,000 hectares of technology application, installation of automatic and semi-automatic watering systems, accounting for more than 30% of the province’s tea area. In addition, more than 5,900 hectares of tea cultivation in the province have been certified to meet GAP and organic standards, of which, VietGAP certification is 5,788 hectares, organic and other GAP are 132 hectares, accounting for 26.6% of the province’s tea area. The province has 62 planting area codes that are located on the GPS global system to track and trace the origin of products, creating a premise for expanding the tea export market…

In tea processing, the output of tea processed by the province reached over 54,600 tons/year, of which, green tea products, high-quality green tea accounted for nearly 80% of the total output, output of black tea and other tea products. (Photo by TD)

In tea processing, the output of tea processed by the province reached over 54,600 tons/year, of which, green tea products, high-quality green tea accounted for nearly 80% of the total output, the output of black tea and other tea products (black tea, matcha, kombucha, shake tea,…) accounted for about 20% of the total output. The province has 62 tea production, processing and trading companies and enterprises, 168 cooperatives, 251 traditional craft villages, over 91,000 tea households.

In recent years, production establishments have increased investment and application of mechanization in all stages of product processing, replacing old, outdated manual processing equipment that does not ensure food hygiene and safety with new and semi-industrial processing equipment such as: stainless steel rotary corrugated iron, gas copying machine, automatic electric tea copying machine… The packaging and preservation have been improved by using vacuum machines, automatic packaging machines, incense brewing machines, cold storage, etc.

According to information from the Department of Science and Technology of Thai Nguyen province, the collective trademark “Thai Nguyen Tea” has been officially protected in 6 countries and territories including: the United States, China, Taiwan (China), Russia, Japan and South Korea. The registration and protection of trademarks abroad is an important step to help Thai Nguyen tea improve its value, expand export markets, and affirm its position and brand reputation in the international arena.

The value of tea trees in the journey of tourism and cultural discovery

Thai Nguyen is doing its best to make tea not only a prominent export item but also an indispensable part of the journey to discover Vietnamese tourism, culture and cuisine.

One of Thai Nguyen’s breakthrough strategies is the combination of tea with tourism and culinary culture. This is a direction that not only helps improve economic value but also creates a Thai Nguyen tea brand imprinted with regional culture. Accordingly, the province has started to build thematic tours about tea, in which visitors will be able to visit famous tea raw material areas, directly participate in the tea harvesting process, enjoy the best teas and learn about the history and typical culture of the tea region.

In addition to building tea tours, Thai Nguyen also focuses on developing unique tourism products, connecting tea culture with famous attractions such as Nui Coc Lake, Duom Temple, or Dinh Hoa ATK. A special feature is that the province is researching and developing railway tourism, allowing visitors to both visit tea gardens and enjoy typical dishes and drinks made from tea in the journey of discovery.

Thai Nguyen province also advocates the exploitation of multiple values between the development of the tea industry associated with culture, history, tourism, services and the environment. (Illustration)

In the new period, the province strengthens and enhances the brand associated with promotion, trade promotion, consumption of tea products, continues to expand the protection of the collective trademark “Thai Nguyen Tea” to other countries to increase the export opportunities of the province’s tea products. Along with that, build and effectively deploy e-commerce websites to promote the promotion, expansion, search for markets, consume tea products and products from Thai Nguyen tea, improve the quality and upgrade tea products to meet OCOP standards of localities in association with the new rural construction program.

At the same time, promote close links between enterprises, cooperatives and tea farmers to exploit the potential of land, labor, capital, production experience, and management level,… From there, creating quality products in large quantities contributes to creating momentum for tea exports, improving product value and sustainable development.

Thai Nguyen province also advocates the exploitation of multiple values between the development of the tea industry associated with culture, history, tourism, services and the environment, reviewing tea areas in the province with production conditions associated with conservation, promoting cultural and historical values, developing tourism and services; continue to develop eco-tourism and experiential tourism models associated with the tea region, contributing to improving the value and brand of Thai Nguyen tea, enhancing the value of tourism resources in the Thai Nguyen tea region, deploying the application of digital platforms to promote and promote tourism, etc Thai Nguyen tea area services./.

In the tea industry development plan for the period of 2025 – 2030, Thai Nguyen province aims to develop the tea industry in association with the restructuring of the agricultural sector in a sustainable direction; improve quality and added value, promote safe and organic production associated with deep processing and product diversification. Since then, it has rapidly increased the proportion of high-quality and high-value products, promoted chain production, applied science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation in production, processing and business, striving for the total value of products obtained from tea trees to reach 25 trillion VND by 2030.

In addition, the province also sets specific goals by 2030 such as increasing the province’s tea area by 24,500 hectares, fresh bud tea output reaching over 300,000 tons; 70% of the tea area is certified to be produced according to GAP and organic standards; 70% of the tea area is granted a planting area code; 100% of tea production, processing and trading establishments and tea products ensure food safety regulations; there are 250 tea products certified to meet OCOP standards from 3 to 5 stars…