Pham Van Minh (right), Head of Tea Cooperative Group in Cay Hamlet, Minh Thanh Commune, Son Duong District shared his experience in taking care of VietGAP tea for members of the group.

During a visit to Thai Nguyen, Minh had the opportunity to enjoy Tan Cuong tea products, knowing that the value of this specialty tea, he began to learn techniques of growing and processing VietGAP tea in this famous tea area.

In 2017, he established VietGAP tea production cooperation group. At that time, local people were used to following the traditional method in tea growing, so it was not easy for him to mobilise them to produce VietGAP tea. He had to explain to people the long-term benefits of making safe tea under VietGAP standards and the value of tea in every village meeting. He said that, when Cay village was recognised as a tea production craft village in 2018, households moved to switch to plant tea varieties with high yield and quality.

The seven-member cooperative group planted 7 hectares of specialty tea with the tea production process according to VietGAP to expand the tea area associated with building the Thanh Tra Tea brand. Households in the locality are always meticulously instructed the stages of planting, caring, harvesting and processing tea by Minh.

Currently, Thanh Tra tea is consumed both inside and outside the province such as Vinh Phuc, Hanoi, and Hai Phong. With a yield of 1.5 tonnes of dry tea per hectare per year, selling price from VND220,000 to VND250,000 VND per kg, local people can earn more than VND100 million from tea each year.

At the end of 2021, Thanh Tra tea products participated in OCOP  product evaluation and achieved 3-star standard. This is an important factor for Thanh Tra tea to have a firm foothold in the country and reach out to foreign countries.