Focusing on safe tea manufacturing

In order to boost the value of tea plants and spread the ancestral land tea brand, Phu Tho province has encouraged households, cooperatives, and enterprises to participate in safe and organic production. In order to implement the tea industry restructuring, the Agriculture sector and municipalities in the province recently examined and organized processing facilities and production organization. Many provincial measures have aimed to increase the quality and value of Phu Tho tea products.

The Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection inspects the organic tea production process at the Hoang Van Tea Cooperative in Van Luong commune, Tan Son District.

Currently, the province’s total tea area is roughly 14,500 hectares, with the product area being approximately 13,900 hectares. The rate of new tea types is almost 78%, and the production of fresh tea buds is approximately 179,000 tons. To increase economic efficiency in tea production and transform the tea sector into a vital commodity with high added value for the province, the Provincial People’s Committee released Plan No. 3092/KH-UBND dated August 10, 2022 on Tea development in the province from 2022 to 2025. As a result, by 2025, the province’s tea area will have stabilized at around 15,700 hectares, the average fresh tea bud production will be 125 tons/ha, and output will be 195,000 tons. At the same time, concentrate on implementing technological measures, safety standards, management systems, and productivity-enhancing instruments in tea production and processing; strive to have 90% of the tea area using IPM; the tea area using excellent, safe production techniques (GlobalGAP, RA, VietGAP, organic...) accounts for over half (approximately 6,000 hectares, of which 2,600 hectares are recently certified to satisfy VietGAP requirements).

In addition, diversify tea products, pushing for the proportion of green tea and highly processed tea products (Oolong, herbs, matcha...) to achieve over 40% in the processing structure. Aim for the average product value of green tea to be around 135 million VND/ha. The proportion of items created through collaboration and association has reached 40%. Strive to control 100% of the concentrated tea production area, including planting area codes, packaging facilities, and traceability in accordance with importing nations' regulations.

By 2023, over 4,100 hectares of tea will be certified for safety, with over 3,600 hectares RA certified and over 424 hectares VietGAP approved. IPM and ICM integrated pest management treatments will cover around 78% of the entire area. That indicates tea producers' understanding of safe production is gradually improving. Ms. Le Thi Phuong, owner of the Bang Phuong tea processing plant in Thu Cuc commune, Tan Son district, stated: "My family has more than 1 acre of VietGAP certified tea. As a manufacturer, I want to provide consumers with high-quality, safe products. Growing tea in a safe way with VietGAP not only ensures the health of the growers but also helps reduce the cost of fertilizers and pesticides because they can use agricultural by-products as fertilizer and use insect trap systems to kill pests. Producing safe tea is also one of the competitive solutions for consuming products today."

According to Mr. Phan Van Dao, Director of the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection, tea is one of the province’s key crops, with the majority of the total output utilized to prepare green tea and black tea for export. Currently, countries' technical obstacles to food safety requirements are becoming increasingly restrictive. In order for the province’s tea products to be readily eaten in worldwide markets in the near future, in addition to designing safe tea regions, the province has established tea production models under the Project “Improving the quality of tea” Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products (QSEAP) focuses primarily on major districts. This is the foundation for attracting investment in the manufacturing of high-quality, high-value tea products. In particular, emphasis on developing safe tea material production regions in an organic direction, minimizing the use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides; implementing the GAP process from production to final product processing, and transitioning to organic tea production.

Phan Cuong