What are the opportunities for a "billion dollar" tree?

After the merger of provincial administrative units, tea continues to affirm its role as a key crop and a prominent strength of Thai Nguyen. Currently, the whole province has nearly 24,000 hectares of tea, with an average yield of about 127 quintals/ha/year. With its existing potential and advantages, tea can completely become a "billion-dollar" industry. However, the tea production and processing process is still facing many difficulties, requiring the province to continue to issue support policies that are close to reality.

Báo Thái Nguyên•30/07/2025

La Bang tea area with endless green tea hills. Photo TL

The difficulty of the tea industry

Aiming to develop tea into a “billion-dollar” tree, Thai Nguyen has reaped “sweet fruit” as the value obtained from tea trees has continuously increased. If in 2024, the value of the province’s tea products reached 13.4 trillion VND, then in the first 6 months of 2025 it reached over 14.5 trillion VND.

However, in the current context, the tea industry still faces many obstacles. Expanding the area is difficult due to the increasingly narrowing land fund for tea cultivation. Many localities have not yet reviewed and evaluated the effectiveness of land use to convert ineffective rice land, forestry land, and land for annual crops to perennial crops, in order to create land funds for tea development.

Mr. Nguyen Ta, Head of the Provincial Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection, said: Currently, many concentrated tea production areas have been established in the province, but they are mainly small-scale households; the scale of cooperatives is still limited. Although the number of newly established tea cooperatives tends to increase every year, they have not attracted many households to participate. Notably, many cooperatives still face difficulties in organizing production, especially in the preliminary processing and processing stages. This makes it difficult for products to achieve uniformity in quality and design, leading to difficulties in meeting large orders and requirements from demanding export markets.

For many years, the expansion of tea growing area in Thai Nguyen has been limited due to increasingly limited land funds.

Ms. Le Thi Quynh Huong, Head of the Provincial Department of Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Product Quality Management, said: After many efforts, up to now, enterprises, cooperatives and tea processing and trading establishments in the province have expanded product distribution channels, including modern channels such as supermarket systems and e-commerce platforms (C-ThaiNguyen, Voso.vn, PostMart...). Tea products basically meet the requirements of quality, food safety and traceability. However, the province has not yet built a distribution system associated with quality management of Thai Nguyen tea in other localities in the country, especially in the southern market.

In addition, Thai Nguyen tea products have not yet exploited many export markets. Some enterprises and cooperatives have only approached the international market through the form of gifts, presents or small-scale exports to demanding markets; the number of enterprises exporting officially is still very limited. Meanwhile, the province has not yet attracted many potential enterprises to participate in investing in the production, processing and consumption of tea products according to the value chain.

Hope the policy will soon come into life

Over the past 10 years, Thai Nguyen province has paid special attention to developing the tea industry through many key projects, such as: Restructuring the agricultural sector, developing key crops... Recently, on February 3, 2025, the Provincial Party Committee issued Resolution No. 11-NQ/TU on developing the Thai Nguyen tea industry in the period of 2025-2030. The Resolution sets many important goals, by 2030, the whole province strives to reach 24,500 hectares of tea, fresh tea bud output of 300,000 tons; 70% of the area is produced according to VietGAP or organic standards; 70% of the area is granted a growing area code; 100% of tea and tea product production, processing and trading establishments ensure food safety regulations...

Enterprises, cooperatives and people in Thai Nguyen hope that support policies for the tea industry will soon come into effect.

Using drones to take care of tea plants at Hao Dat Tea Cooperative. Photo TL

To specify the set targets and plans, the People's Council of Thai Nguyen province has drafted a Resolution promulgating regulations on policies to support the development of the tea industry in Thai Nguyen province, seeking opinions from relevant departments and branches and is expected to be approved at the regular mid-year meeting of the People's Council in 2025.

Accordingly, the draft regulation on policies to support the development of the tea industry in the province includes 11 support contents, which are expected by many people and cooperatives. The support contents in the above draft regulations have been built on the basis of closely following the production practices and the needs of tea makers.

Notably, 100% of the cost of buying tea seeds for new planting and replacement planting is supported. One-time support of 70% of the cost of buying organic fertilizers and organic microorganisms for new tea planting in the first year. In addition, the province also supports certification of meeting VietGAP and other GAP standards with a support level of 100% of the cost of first-time GAP certification, up to 6 million VND/ha; 100% of the cost of re-issuing GAP certification, up to 4 million VND/ha for organizations and individuals who meet the requirements on tea production scale (minimum of 5ha)...

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hien, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Ha Thai Tea Joint Stock Company: “After many years of working in the tea production sector, I have realized that investment resources for developing tea production in Thai Nguyen are still limited, not meeting production needs, especially investment in supporting production materials of organic and biological origin; mechanization in production, processing and expansion of tea production areas certified with organic standards”...

The province also pays special attention to supporting the issuance of tea growing area codes. Accordingly, establishments participating in tea production, processing and consumption; with a minimum growing area of 5 hectares, establishments that commit to maintaining the growing area code in accordance with regulations for at least 5 years will be supported with 100% of the cost of attaching the first export growing area code, up to 25 million VND/growing area. The State ensures annual funding for inspection and supervision of growing areas that have been assigned codes.

Thai Nguyen province also issued a support mechanism for the application of smart, water-saving irrigation systems in tea production according to VietGAP and organic standards, with a minimum scale of 2 hectares. The support level is implemented once, equal to 70% of the investment cost, up to 60 million VND/ha and not exceeding 300 million VND/facility. In addition, people are also supported in purchasing machinery and equipment for tea production and processing; registering for intellectual property protection; developing tea products and tea products that meet OCOP standards; at the same time, they are supported in promoting, building brands and promoting trade for products.

Ms. Tong Thi Xuyen, Director of Hoan Xuyen Safe Tea Cooperative, Vo Tranh Commune: "The province's support policies have practical significance for businesses, cooperatives and tea-growing households. When effectively implemented, these policies will become a "lever" to help us expand tea production areas according to VietGAP and organic standards, enhancing the value and competitiveness of Thai Nguyen tea products."

In particular, in this draft Resolution, Thai Nguyen province has paid attention to supporting the development of community tourism and eco -tourism associated with tea production areas. Accordingly, the conditions for enjoying support policies are that community-eco- tourism sites must be recognized by competent authorities; the tea area must be in the local tourism development plan or have clear tourism exploitation potential.

People, businesses, and cooperatives producing, processing, and trading tea in the province are looking forward to the resolution being passed soon and quickly put into practice.

Support for organic tea production (minimum production scale of 5 hectares): 100% support for the first organic certification fee, up to 60 million VND/ha; 100% support for re-certification fee, up to 40 million VND/ha. 70% support for the purchase of organic fertilizers, microbial organic fertilizers, biological pesticides, biological products during the conversion to organic tea production period, up to 3 years, and not exceeding 50 million VND/ha/year...

(Excerpt from draft regulations on policies to support the development of the tea industry in Thai Nguyen province)