Vietnam to Export 120,000 Tonnes of Tea in 2010

Vietnam to Export 120,000 Tonnes of Tea in 2010

Vietnam, the world’s sixth largest tea exporter, is forecast to ship around 120,000 tons of tea products worth around US$200 million annually from 2010, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Vu Tat Tiep, Deputy Head of the ministry’s Planning Department, made the announcement in Hanoi on January 5 at a meeting aimed at carrying out a government decision on the development of the tea industry through 2010.

"The tea sector has mapped out a development plan in the 2006-2010 period to reach the target by that time that more than doubles last year’s tea exports," he said, adding that in 2004, the country sold abroad 97,000 tonnes of tea valued at US$93 million, up 62.5 per cent and 55.4 per cent, respectively.

Bolstering international cooperation and enhancing marketing activities were defined as one of the key measures to develop Vietnam's tea sector in a sustainable way between 2006-2010.

Other measures involved drawing up a master plan for the sector, increasing applications of scientific and technological advances, boosting processing technology transfers, attracting investment from various sources for modernizing tea processing establishments, and rearranging tea processing mills.

The Planning Department, along with the Vietnam Tea Association and the Vietnam Tea Corporation, will set up a tea trading center in Hanoi to bring buyers and sellers together and help enterprises identify sources of investment for needed technologies to improve the quality and quantity of tea products, he said.

It reminded the Tea Corporation to carefully assess feasibility studies of tea processing development projects to raise investment efficiency. "Processing establishments must be located near material zones in order to raise the quality of their products and ensure supplies," leaders of the MARD said.

A center will check the quality of tea products before they are marketed to either domestic or foreign buyers, Tiep said.

The industry will provide financial and technical support for tea exporters in the way of advertising, introduction of products and building foreign markets, particularly in Taiwan, Japan, Russia, Pakistan, Eastern Europe and Middle Eastern countries, Tiep said. It will further promote trade activities into other potential export markets including the EU, Turkey, Germany, the US, mainland China and India.

"Building, registering and protecting trademarks and brand names for tea products will be concurrently promoted," Tiep added.

According to a MARD report on the development of the tea industry from 1999 to 2004, Vietnam expanded export markets from 41 countries in 1999 to 56 in 2004. Asian countries accounted for 72.5 per cent of these countries, European countries 22.7 per cent and the US and Latin American countries 3.3 per cent.

Vietnam tea exports increased from 38,400 tonnes in 1999 to 97,000 last year, according to the report. Tea exports have risen in each year except 2003, when the war in Iraq, one of Vietnam tea's key export markets, had a negative impact.

Export value rose during the study period from US$45.2 million in 1999 to US$91.5 million last year, the report said. The number of tea exporters in Vietnam also grew, from 127 in 2000 to 153 ones now.

Black tea exports last year accounted for 58.3 per cent of total exports; green tea exports 20.7 per cent and other kinds of tea 21 per cent. However, tea producers need to improve tea quality in order to increase export selling prices, the ministry said, and tea products still lack trademarks in various world markets.

At present, Vietnam has 120,000 hectares under tea cultivation, 38,000 hectares higher than in 1999.

• P.V