Drought causes raw tea prices in Nghe An to increase

Record high price of raw tea

The tea garden is in its 5th and 7th year, in a rather "prosperous" period and has a continuous irrigation system, so despite the drought, nearly 1 hectare of tea belonging to Mr. Nguyen The Hoi's family, hamlet 6, Thanh Huong commune still achieves quite high productivity. Not only that, the latest batch of tea he imported was priced at 5,300 VND/kg, good tea at 5,800 VND/kg.

“Each batch of tea averages 1.6-1.7 tons. If they can’t bring it to the factory, they go to the garden to buy it, deducting 5-7% of the price for costs and transportation. The first batch of tea this year only sold for 2,000-2,500 VND/kg. It’s been a long time since the price of tea has increased as much as it is now. In about 20 days, the family will continue with the new harvest,” said Mr. Hoi.

Having opened a processing facility for 20 years, Ms. Tran Thi Hien, owner of The Manh tea processing facility in Thanh Huong commune (Thanh Chuong), said: The price of raw tea purchased at this time is the "peak" price in many years. However, the supply is still not enough, so in the past few weeks she had to go to Con Cuong and Anh Son districts to buy more.

“During the tea harvest, we consume about 20 tons of fresh raw materials every day. In previous years, Thanh Chuong tea accounts for about half of the raw tea, but this year it is less than 30%. The local output has decreased, the supply is limited, so processing factories compete to raise prices, currently the factory purchase price is at 5,600-5,700 VND/kg, more than double compared to the beginning of the year; and we mainly have to buy from other localities, so we have to bear additional labor and transportation costs,” said Ms. Hien.

Currently, due to limited exports, Ms. Hien's family tea factory mainly processes tea for domestic consumption. While input material prices have reached record highs, processed products have remained almost unchanged in price. Despite the difficulties, the factory still operates normally, both selling tea to people and creating jobs and stable income for the factory's 25 workers.

Drought, tea productivity decreased

Ms. Hoang Thi Loan's family has 2 hectares of tea that were newly planted since 2019. This year, this is the third batch of tea to be harvested. Ms. Loan said that the first batch in February cost only 2,300-2,500 VND/kg, from the next 2 batches the price gradually increased and currently the factory price is 5,800 VND/kg. However, the tea yield is lower due to drought. If in previous years, the irrigation system had to be used in May and June, this year, the tea had to be irrigated continuously since April.

“This year, the drought was early, so the electricity bill increased, the quality of tea was also affected, and the price was low. Not only that, the labor cost last year was only 200,000 VND/day, but this year it increased to 250,000 VND, and the cost of phosphate fertilizers and harvesting also increased, so income was also affected. However, thanks to the record high tea price, it is still better than every year,” Ms. Loan said excitedly.

In recent years, due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic and some other factors, at many times the price of raw tea in Thanh Chuong was only purchased at over 2,000 VND/kg but it was still sluggish, the purchasing factories were very limited; many households had to collect cheap bundles of tea for traders to sell at local markets, many families had to destroy tea and switch to growing corn and peanuts. But this year, some households have replanted the land to grow tea.

Thanh Thinh commune has more than 255 hectares of tea. In addition to importing for local processing factories, people also sell raw tea to processing factories in Hanh Lam, Thanh Duc... According to Ms. Dinh Thi Hang, an agricultural official of the commune, the prolonged heat in the past few days has affected the growth and development of tea plants. After the severe damage caused by drought in 2019-2020, in addition to support from the State, many tea growers have invested in building sprinkler irrigation systems, thanks to which the damaged and burnt tea area has significantly decreased. However, the drought still affects the productivity and output of tea, especially in areas without irrigation systems and water sources.

As a key tea district of the province, Thanh Chuong currently has over 4,780 hectares of tea. To date, 2,015 hectares have been irrigated by sprinkler irrigation systems. Many households have invested in advanced irrigation systems, built small dams to combat drought, ensuring productivity and quality of tea - Mr. Le Dinh Thanh - Vice Chairman of Thanh Chuong District People's Committee said.