Tea bud prices increase, Nghe An people both harvest and reinvest

These days, on the tea hills in the communes of Thanh Mai, Thanh Thuy, Thanh Huong, Thanh My, Hanh Lam (Thanh Chuong), there is an urgent atmosphere of harvesting. To keep the tea sweet and astringent, beautiful color, and eye-catching appearance, people focus on harvesting at the right time. In addition to mobilizing machines to keep up with the season, households also focus on human resources to pick tea.

Mr. Phan Lam (Hanh Lam commune) planted 15 hectares of tea. For the past 10 days, in addition to his family's 2 tea picking machines, he has also hired an outside machine to pick tea on time. Mr. Phan Lam said: "This year's Spring tea has favorable weather, so the tea harvest is good. The yield is about 2.5 - 3 tons/ha/batch. The Spring tea crop is of the highest quality, producing the best tea compared to other harvests, so it is very popular in the market."

The entire Hanh Lam commune has a total industrial tea growing area of ​​320 hectares - a key tea growing area of ​​Thanh Chuong. In the past two years, when the price of tea buds was stable, fluctuating from 4,500 VND - 5,000 VND/kg, people were excited and focused on fertilizing. Therefore, tea productivity has continuously increased.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Luan - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Hanh Lam commune said: "Tea is the main crop, bringing the main income for the people of Hanh Lam. Tea prices are stable, tea growers make a profit, so people invest in care. At the same time, they strongly shift to production according to VietGAP to create a stable output for tea buds".

With an area of ​​nearly 270 hectares of industrial tea, 400 households grow, these days, people in Thanh Mai commune are focusing on harvesting tea buds at the right time. Most people who grow tea on a large area proactively buy tea picking machines, only about 20% have to rent machines.

To harvest the right crop and on time, Thanh Mai people have set up labor exchange groups, tea growers take turns harvesting to help each other. Up to now, nearly 50% of the spring tea crop has been harvested. According to tea growers in Thanh Mai, this year's spring tea yield has increased by about 0.5 tons/ha compared to last year.

The most exciting thing is that the price of spring tea this year has increased: 700 - 1,000 VND/kg increase (compared to the 2023 spring tea crop) and doubled compared to spring tea in 2022 and 2021. Currently, tea buds are being purchased by local tea processing establishments at 4,700 - 5,500 VND/kg (depending on the type).

“Compared to previous years, tea prices are much higher. With this price, tea growers make a good profit, about 12-15 million VND/ha/harvest. Our company alone buys 30 tons of fresh tea buds for people in the district every day. After being processed, tea is exported to other countries and consumed domestically,” said Mr. Le Van The, Traditional Tea Company Limited (Thanh Mai, Thanh Chuong).

According to Mr. The, the reason why tea buds have increased is because the price of tea has increased, and tea exports have improved after a difficult period due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, people have gradually formed a sense of green-clean production, applying VietGAP criteria to intensive tea cultivation, so the quality of tea is better, and is more popular in foreign markets.

Currently, industrial tea growers in the provinces of Thanh Chuong, Anh Son, Con Cuong, and Quy Hop are focusing on harvesting spring tea in time. This is the first harvest of the year, and also the most important harvest that determines the yield and quality of the following tea crops.

Therefore, in parallel with harvesting on schedule and in time, people also focus on taking good care of the tea trees. “The first harvest of the year plays a role in creating a canopy for the tea trees to grow well in the coming time. Therefore, we have focused on instructing people to invest effort and techniques in harvesting properly to ensure productivity and output for the tea trees throughout the year.

With the characteristics of tea trees, each bud is born from a leaf axil, many leaves have many buds, so picking buds and leaving leaves are closely related to tea yield. For the Spring crop (the first tea harvest of the year), when picking, it is necessary to leave 1 female leaf (a leaf that has not fully opened near the bud) + 2 true leaves, creating an even canopy.

After harvesting, it is necessary to add additional fertilizer, phosphate and nitrogen in the correct dosage; water enough and keep the tea moist," said Mr. Pham Van Duong, technical officer, Agricultural Industry Joint Stock Company 32 (Quy Hop).