Local people in the northen mountainous Bang Phuc village in Bac Can Province are growing Shan tea to boost living standards. The village has a lot of work to do before it can turn its special tea into an export crop.
VietNamNet Bridge - Farmers in Bac Can Province are growing tea to fight poverty, but there’s still a long way to go.
Bang Phuc village farmers in northern Bac Can Province cultivate Shan tea as a key part of a plan to eradicate hunger and alleviate poverty for the community of more than 2,300 residents.
The cloudy mountainous village, situated over 1,000m above sea level, is home to more than 1,000 century-old evergreen tea trees.
Local households have enlarged the local plantation to an area of 500ha with grafts from the old trees as part of a provincial Department of Science and Technology project that began in 2000.
"The ancient trees are still productive and the grafts have boosted our harvests over the decade of the project," said chairman of Bang Phuc Village, Nong Van Son.
"The ease of growing and the high productivity of the tea grafts have earned some households a good income," Son said.
However, Bang Phuc Village has a long way to go before it can turn its special tea into an export crop in the same way other mountainous provinces have done.
Shan tea is also grown in provinces of Thai Nguyen, Yen Bai, Phu Tho and Ha Giang provinces, and has become a speciality product for famous trademarks.
Green tea from Thai Nguyen is well-connected with Tan Cuong, while Yen Bai Province has had success with the Suoi Giang brand.
So far Bac Can has only used its Shan tea cultivation as a source of social and economic development. It has not had the opportunity to pair with a recognised trademark.
"Our tea is registered with the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam, and is the primary plant grown in our agriculture-based village," the chairman said. He also said that the village does not have the technology necessary to process the tea for export.
According to vice chairman of the Vietnam Tea Association (VITAS) Tran Xuan Gia, the high mountainous provinces have just the right conditions to develop green tea for export.
"Tea planting in the highlands at 800m above sea level will result in a high quality product and a high yield. However, the climate isn’t enough; more conditions are needed, including good fertiliser, the right soil and processing technology, to reach international standards," said Gia.
Ground work
The suitable natural conditions have helped some villagers gain prosperity from tea with profits between VND20-30 (US$1,100-1,700) million per year.
Village chairman Son explained that the money is a significant increase over the previous annual average income level of VND5 million ($285) for the villagers.
Farmer Mung Ngoc Huu pocketed more than VND20 million ($1,100) last year from dried tea sales. He has cultivated grafted trees on a 4ha area for the past four years for a net profit of VND15-20 million per year.
"With an investment of about VND30-40 million ($1,700-2,300) I can harvest about 400kg of dried tea from both the grafted and ancient trees, but it’s just enough to make ends meet. The figure remains low because of our low-tech processing capability," Huu says.
He added that most villagers use their hands for cultivation, processing and packaging.
"I take care to ensure the dried tea is free of chemicals. We do not use fertiliser, pesticides or even water the crop between February and October. It’s a very natural product," the 42-year-old farmer said.
"For these reasons the tea is sold only within the province. We can not expand our market to neighbouring provinces."
He also said farmers need more technical and financial assistance for infrastructure, technology and marketing.
"We want to deliver good quality tea to customers around the country, but we can not bring our product far from the provincial market because we lack advanced equipment and cultivation standards to process the tea," Huu said.
The provincial Department of Science and Technology recently established a seedling centre in the locality to provide resident farmers with saplings as well as technical assistance.
However, it won’t be enough to turn the village into a famous centre for green tea production.
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