Vietnam Tea Exports to Surge over 20 per cent in 2006
The Vietnamese tea sector is now optimistic that it will, for the first time, surpass an annual export target, shipping over 95,000 tons of products worth $100 million in 2006, up 20 per cent on year in value, according to the Ministry of Trade.
In the past nine months of this year, the country exported 72,000 tons of various types of tea products, raking in $76 million, on-year rises of 23 per cent in volume and 22 per cent in value.
However, the ministry said export prices of Vietnamese tea are still as low as 55 per cent-70 per cent of other countries’, mostly due to poor quality.
Vietnam, who produces 15 different types of tea for exports, is now the world’s seventh biggest tea exporter. Its tea products have been available at 57 countries and territories worldwide with Pakistan, Taiwan, Russia, India and China remaining the major consumers.
Vietnam is now home to 125,000 hectares under tea cultivation, mostly in 33 cities and provinces nationwide, yielding out an estimated raw output of 577,000 teas per annum, fulfilling just 50 per cent of the current processing capacities.
www.vinanet.vn, Vietnam Economic Times
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