Thua Thien-Hue (VNS/VNA) - The Vietnamese tea sector should work harder to improve thequality of its exports in order to better tap the global market, includingRussia, experts have said.

According to experts, Vietnamcurrently ranks fifth in the list of global tea exporters. However, Vietnamesetea is sold at just 1.60 USD per kilo, almost three times lower than that ofthe most expensive Sri Lanka tea.

The low cost is due toits poorer quality as well as the popularity of Vietnamese tea.

“Vietnamese tea has abad reputation of low quality and a high percentage of chemical residuecompared to other teas,” said Sharyn Johnston of the Australian TeaAssociation. “Many people don’t know that Vietnam is capable of producing highquality tea.

“In fact, Vietnam hasgood tea and local tea has a great chance of being listed alongside the world’sspecialty teas. The country’s tea sector should work harder to achieve that,”she said.

According to RamazChanturiya, chairman of the Tea Association of Russia, Russia is the biggesttea importer in the world, importing more than 160,000 tonnes of tea annually,and Vietnamese tea should aim to further tap this market.

“Vietnam has thepotential to do this as the country has a wide tea planting area and good tea.Even China, the world’s fourth largest tea exporter, has high demand forVietnamese tea,” he said.

According to Dr Nguyen HuuTai, Chairman of the Vietnam Tea Association, the country has 125,000 hectaresof tea plantation, mainly in the northern mountainous provinces of Thai Nguyen,Ha Giang, Phu Thọ, Tuyen Quang and Yen Bai, and the Central Highlands provinceof Lam Dong.

The country has theworld’s second largest area producing tea, behind China. The country consumes45,000 tonnes of tea a year and exports 145,000 tonnes, achieving revenue of 245million USD.

“In the past, Vietnamused chemical fertilisers for tea and also applied old technology inharvesting, making local tea of a lower quality. But the situation has changedin recent years,” he said.

“Areas planting organictea have grown and provinces have developed large cultivated zones for tea,facilitating the application of advanced harvesting technology.”

According to the VietnamTea Association, tea growers in eight provinces around the country, includingHa Giang, Thai Nguyen, Nghe An and Lam Dong have registered to cultivate underthe procedures of VietGAP and Global GAP (Good Agriculture Practice) to improvetheir tea quality.

The quality of local teais gradually improving thanks to these measures, but Tai said the tea sectorwould need to attract more investment in order to better meet global standards.

Johnston of theAustralian Tea Association insisted that Vietnamese tea producers must work togain global recognition for their products. Meanwhile, Chanturiya of the TeaAssociation of Russia said the country’s tea sector should develop alarge-scale company working to promote the top tea varieties of Vietnam.

Chanturiya alsoencouraged the development of a promotion network for Vietnamese tea in tourismhotspots like Hue, as well as help local tea producers take educational tripsabroad.

William Lee of the KoreaTea Board recommended tea cultural tourism, saying that Vietnamese gastronomyis well-known around the world, but food and beverage service for tourists inthe country are rarely accompanied with tea.

Lee said bringinginternational visitors to tea plantations and creating tea festivals would helppeople learn more about the Vietnamese tea culture.

Those experts encouragedVietnamese tea businesses to take advantage of the Tea Masters CupInternational, which is the fourth world championship held for internationaltea sommeliers on November 23-25 in Hue, to promote Vietnamese tea.

At the competition, alltypes of tea used for the sommeliers are Vietnamese trademarks. The speakers spokeat a seminar held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development heldlate last week as a sideline event of the Tea Masters CupInternational.-VNS/VNA