Thai Nguyen spends big to promote tea trade mark

Of which, about VND150 billion (US$6.6 million) is sourced from the province’s budget, while the rest is mobilised from enterprises, organisations and individuals, among others.

The amount will be used to help improve the productivity and quality of tea, thus enhancing the value and competitiveness of Thai Nguyen tea products whose production value is estimated at VND3.75 trillion (US$165 million) by 2020.

Under the programme, 3,900 hectares will be zoned off for producing tea materials in Thai Nguyen city, Dai Tu, Dong Hy, Phu Luong, Dinh Hoa and Vo Nhai districts and Pho Yen town.

Infrastructure facilities will be built to serve hi-tech tea production while investing in planting and replacing 4,400 hectares of high-yield and high-quality tea trees.

Funding will be disbursed to certify over 300 hectares of clean tea trees in line with such standards as VietGAP, and 50 tea production facilities meeting food safety requirements each year.

A focus will be placed on developing and managing Thai Nguyen’s tea trade mark while establishing cooperatives in tandem building chain values based on the connection between production and consumption.

According to Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ngo Xuan Hai, the province has over 21,100 hectares of tea trees, with 80 percent of the area have applied safe production methods and good agricultural practices.

There are 43 cooperatives with the involvement of over 60,000 households from 140 trade villages. They earn over VND100 million (US$4,400) per hectares of tea trees per year.

The programme is expected to create jobs and stable income for over 300,000 labourers while contributing to ecotourism development and environmental protection, Hai said.

Thai Nguyen has shipped its tea products to Pakistan, Taiwan (China), Russia, China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea.